Miami — This one will leave a mark.
The Tigers had a chance to blow the game wide open in the top of the 11th and failed. The consequence of that was to watch the young Miami Marlins celebrate a two-run, walk-off home run by Troy Johnston and dramatic 6-4 victory Saturday, their second in a row over the Tigers at loanDepot Park.
“That was a tough one,” Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler said. “Obviously in that situation, we needed to capitalize, myself included. Disappointing we didn’t come out with more. The at-bats kind of lagged in that half-inning.”
The Tigers stranded the free runner, Parker Meadows, in the 10th inning. Hard-throwing reliever Michael Petersen struck out Kerry Carpenter and got Riley Greene to pop out.
Reliever Will Vest, though, kept the Tigers in position to win. He hadn’t pitched in six days. But had a clean ninth inning and grinded through a scoreless 10th, as well.
“Awesome,” Dingler said. “We haven’t seen him in a bit and for him to do that after not touching the bump in a while, that was impressive. But that’s who he is. That’s what he brings.”
It looked like Vest was going to have a quick 10th. The free runner, pinch-runner Xavier Edwards, was doubled up at second base when Vest caught a bunt attempt by Javir Sanoja in the air and fired a seed to second base.
But he walked Allen Park native Jakob Marsee and yielded a bloop single by Agustin Ramirez, sending Marsee to third. Vest dodged the bullet, getting Liam Hicks, the former Tigers’ farmhand, on a soft liner to short.
Then came the fateful 11th.
Spencer Torkelson, with Petersen still pitching, singled free-runner Greene to third. Wenceel Perez’s double plated Greene and broke the 3-3 tie. And after Colt Keith was walked intentionally, the Tigers had the bases loaded and nobody out.
Petersen struck out Dingler and Marlins manager Clayton McCullough summoned lefty Josh Simpson, who came in with an 8.65 ERA and 1.962 WHIP.
Tigers’ skipper AJ Hinch countered by sending up righty-swinging Jahmai Jones. Advantage, seemingly, Tigers.
Simpson’s second pitch went to the backstop. Nine out of 10 times that’s an easy run. This time, the ball caromed hard off the back wall and Torkelson was an easy out at home.
“I think that hit the one spot where it bounces off hard,” Dingler said. “It was unlucky. Tork was ready for it. He was ready for a wild pitch. That’s just an unfortunate situation right there.”
Said Hinch: “When he saw the ball go to the backstop, (Torkelson) just put his head down and ran hard. And the ball caromed back. It was a little unlucky, a little crazy with how far it bounced back. Tough play.”
And it flipped the matchup advantage. McCullough walked Jones intentionally to let Simpson battle lefty-swinging Meadows with two outs. And Simpson struck him out.
“When you get two outs, you can choose what you want to do,” Hinch said. “There is some risk there when you walk (Jones), given how wild Simpson was at the beginning. It was their choice and they had the open base. But it doesn’t come without some risk.”
It left the Tigers with a precarious one-run lead and a spent bullpen. Hinch had already used Troy Melton, Tommy Kahnle and Vest. Rafael Montero got the call in the 11th, though he threw 18 pitches and got five outs Friday.
Otto Lopez started the bottom of the 11th with an infield single, moving the free runner to third. A fielder’s choice ground out by Heriberto Hernandez tied the score.
That set the stage for Johnston. He came into the game with one homer but he launched a 434-foot bomb off Melton in the sixth inning. Montero threw him a splitter at the bottom of the zone and he sent it 413 feet into the seats in right-center.
“It’s just losing; any way you do it is the worst part,” Hinch said. “There were a lot of pieces to that game. But yeah, when you get that opportunity to tack on, especially with the randomness of extra innings and how crazy things can happen, only scoring one when you were in position to score a bunch is tough.”
The Tigers have lost 12 of 18 and their lead in the Central Division is down to 6.5 games over the Guardians, who they will play six times in the final two weeks of the season. They trail the Blue Jays by 2.5 games.
BOX SCORE: Marlins 6, Tigers 4, 11 innings
And tomorrow, after the bullpen has covered 11 innings the last two games, the Tigers have a scheduled bullpen game. Right-hander Keider Montero will start and veteran Jose Urquidy, just activated off the injured list, is also expect to work multiple innings.
“It is what it is,” Hinch said. “That’s where we’re at. We have plenty of pitching. We have the off day Monday. We’ll be ready to play.”
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