Milwaukee – This one won’t make the time capsule.
“We didn’t really play well in any facet,” manager AJ Hinch said after the Tigers endured a fight-less 5-0 loss to the Brewers Tuesday at American Family Field. “It’s the first time in a while things haven’t really gone our way. But it’s a quick turnaround (1:10 p.m. finale Wednesday) and we have a chance to win a series and have a really good road trip.
“But there wasn’t a lot to like out of tonight.”
The first question that had to be answered was whether they were going to muster a hit. And they did. But only one.
Brewers’ right-hander Quinn Priester kept the hit column empty for five innings, though he did walk three and took the mound in the sixth at 81 pitches.
Gleyber Torres whacked a 1-1 sinker into the gap in right-center for a double to lead off the inning. And there it was. The one and only.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 5, Tigers 0
“His stuff was sharp,” said Spencer Torkelson, who ended the game with a fly out to the wall in left. “He was hitting his spots and getting ahead. There wasn’t much we could do. Just try to grind out the at-bats the best we could. We weren’t trying to do too much. We weren’t getting ourselves out.
“He just got us out. One of those days.”
Priester, acquired from the Red Sox last month, kept the Tigers off-balance with a smart mix of sinkers, sliders and cutters.
“It was pretty clear he was in control of the game,” Hinch said. “We were in between pitches. We took pitches. We swung wildly and didn’t really threaten the hit column that much. It was obviously his night.”
The Tigers didn’t offer any resistance to the Brewers’ bullpen, either.
Torres ended up stranded at third base in the sixth when lefty reliever Jared Koenig entered and struck out Riley Greene (looking) and Torkelson (swinging).
The last 12 hitters were dispatched in order Koenig (1.1 innings), Abner Uribe (.2), Nick Mears (1) and Grant Anderson (1).
“It’s one game,” Torkelson said. “I sucks, whatever. But it’s one game. We’ve got a lot more games left. We’re not going to let this one bother us.”
It was a night of frustration for Tigers’ starter Jack Flaherty.
“Completely out of sync,” he said, after allowing three runs and needing 98 pitches to get through 4.2 innings. “I wasn’t able to command the zone, was all over the place, wasn’t controlling counts, wasn’t putting guys away, wasn’t getting ahead.
“Put it all together and it doesn’t add up to a good result.
Rhys Hoskins opened the second inning with a 440-foot home run to left-center and it was an example of Flaherty’s issues. He got ahead with a 93-mph four-seamer, painted on the outer edge.
Next pitch, another four-seamer, this one at 90 mph in the heart of the plate.
Flaherty walked three and had uncharacteristic trouble controlling his slider and curveball. Hinch was asked if he thought Flaherty was battling his mechanics.
“You need to talk to him about it and we will, too,” he said. “But when you are off, it’s hard to find your rhythm and your timing, your power, your grip. There’s any number of reasons why the ball isn’t coming out where you want it, regardless of the velocity.
“I think velo is a by-product of energy and getting his body moving. Tonight it didn’t happen.”
The Brewers tacked on a pair of unearned runs off reliever Brenan Hanifee and hat-tip to Torres for saving another run.
With Sal Frelick at second base and two outs in the sixth, Joey Ortiz spanked a ground ball that looked ticketed for right field. Torres ranged to his left and made a sensational diving play, getting up quickly to make the throw to first.
A one-out throwing error by third baseman Andy Ibáñez in the seventh led to a 37-pitch seventh for Hanifee and set up the two unearned runs.
“He needed to finish as much as he could,” Hinch said of Hanifee. “It was his innings to get through regardless, given where our pen is and where it’s likely to be over the next few days.”
The Tigers earlier in the day announced that right-hander Keider Montero, who was in the clubhouse Tuesday, would be officially called up Wednesday and start in the finale Wednesday. In the midst of playing 23 games in 24 days, the Tigers are pushing their other five starters back one day.
Hinch announced after the game that Hanifee was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo to make room for Montero.
Tough business.
@cmccosky