Riley Greene hit the first grand slam of his career to put the Detroit Tigers ahead, but the Oakland Athletics rallied for a 7-6 win on a bases-loaded walk in the 10th inning Tuesday night at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento.
The Tigers (78-56) have lost three straight, including the first two games of this three-game series against the A’s (62-72), who have quietly been one of baseball’s hottest teams over the past five weeks.
After falling into a 3-0 hole on Jacob Wilson’s three-run homer in the first inning, the Tigers answered in the third, loading the bases on a single and two walks before Greene crushed a slider from A’s starter Osvaldo Bido 471 feet to center. It was the longest home run by a Tiger in the Statcast era (2015-present).
As it turned out, Greene’s milestone swing was only one chapter in a back-and-forth night. Oakland scored twice off Tigers starter Charlie Morton in the bottom of the third to reclaim a 5-4 lead. Colt Keith evened the score with a solo homer in the fifth.
Morton lasted five innings, striking out seven.
The Tigers’ defense was shaky on Tuesday, with a dropped popup by Keith and a throwing error from shortstop Zach McKinstry. One eighth-inning miscue, however, unexpectedly helped: A catchable popup from Lawrence Butler fell between Keith and catcher Dillon Dingler, but reliever Troy Melton pounced on the ball, threw to second to force the baserunner who had been at first. McKinstry then gunned the ball to first to retire Butler, who had failed to run out the play.
“We created our own mess, and we paid for it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters after the game. “You can’t make those kinds of mistakes and expect to win at this level. Some of them show up on the scoreboard, some of them don’t. It was a frustrating night, and we didn’t do anything to win.”
Melton delivered three scoreless innings in relief. Kyle Finnegan extended his scoreless streak to 11 2/3 innings with a clean ninth.
Former Tigers farmhand Elvis Alvarado, pumping 100-plus mph fastballs, held his old team scoreless in the ninth. The Tigers scraped through a run in the 10th on McKinstry’s RBI single.
But the bottom of the 10th went south from the get-go. Tyler Soderstrom poked a single through the hole on the left side of the infield and then reached second when the Tigers were careless on their cutoff.
A pair of walks loaded the bases, and Will Vest walked Darell Hernáiz to force home the winning run, an anticlimactic finish to what had been a wild game.
Up next: The series concludes on Wednesday at 10:05 p.m. Eastern time.
Tigers right-hander Casey Mize (12-4, 3.68 ERA) will face A’s right-hander Luis Morales (1-0, 1.72).
Morales, a 22-year-old native of Cuba, is making just his fifth appearance since his debut on Aug. 1. Morales defected in 2020 and signed with the A’s in 2023. He is rated the fourth-best prospect in the organization by MLB Pipeline.
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