St. Louis – The Tigers had to use four relievers Tuesday night to secure a 5-4 win. And when manager AJ Hinch was asked how that might impact the scheduled bullpen game the next afternoon, he didn’t flinch.
“We will be fine,” he said. “We will go with everybody and hopefully make it a little chaotic for them.”
See what he did there? Chaotic. Chaos.
A sextet of relievers effectively covered the nine innings Wednesday and the Tigers were able to get out of St. Louis with another series win, beating the Cardinals 5-1 at Busch Stadium.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Cardinals 1
The win wraps up a stretch where the Tigers played 16 of 22 games on the road. They went 15-7 and won three of the four road series.
“That’s big,” said Spencer Torkelson, who knocked in a run and was on base four times. “We didn’t talk about that. I didn’t even know that. We’ve just been grinding day by day, staying ready, staying present, sticking to our plan and executing.
“I think the execution has been done at a really high level.”
They’ve also won 12 of the first 16 series in a season for the first time since the magical year of 1984 — which was also the last year a Tigers team won the World Series.
“We’re really good at resetting and getting to the next game,” Hinch said. “The reality is, every day is a new test and every day you have to come ready to play. And we do. After the first game here (an 11-4 loss), the most important game of the year was the next day.
“We got that one and came in today with a chance to win a series and we do it. We’ve needed a lot of guys to do well the last couple of days.”
Especially Wednesday.
Lefty Brant Hurter started and pitched three scoreless innings. He allowed a walk and a bunt single in the second but was helped out of the inning by the quick hands of third baseman Zach McKinstry, who snared Jordan Walker’s 105.5 mph dart with two on and two out and got the force out at second.
Right-handed sidearmer Chase Lee got the next six outs, allowing only a hit batsman, which he erased with a 6-3 double-play ball. And for that, he earned his first Major League win.
“It started with Brant,” Lee said. “He went three innings. I don’t know what was expected of him, but that was big for us and we kept passing it along. We put up a lot of zeros and thankfully the offense scored early and gave us a chance to not have to be perfect. That goes a long way.”
The chaos came in the sixth inning. Lefty Sean Guenther was summoned with two lefties due up for the Cardinals.
The first one, Victor Scott II, singled. Guenther got the next two hitters, but Scott II advanced to second on a long fly out by Brendan Donovan.
With right-handed hitter Willson Contreras coming up, and red-hot, righty-swinging Ivan Herrera on deck, Hinch brought in righty Brenan Hanifee.
Hanifee made a pitcher’s pitch to Contreras, a 95.8 mph sinker down and away and got the ground ball he was looking for. But Contreras was able to hit it up the middle and out of the diving reach of shortstop Trey Sweeney to make it a 3-1 game.
Things got hairy in the seventh inning, too, after Alec Burleson led off with a bloop single off Hanifee.
With one out, Hinch went to lefty Tyler Holton and he was greeted with a seeing-eye single to right by lefty Nolan Gorman. A wild pitch by Holton put the tying runs in scoring position.
Holton, who had allowed seven earned runs in his last 9.1 innings before Wednesday, buckled down. He struck out Jordan Walker looking at a perfectly-placed changeup at the bottom of the zone and got pinch-hitter Yohel Pozo to fly to center.
“That felt good,” Holton said. “I’ve been on the other side of that for a few outings recently. So it was huge to be able to stop that little momentum push they had that inning and give it back to our offense to score more runs. That’s all I was trying to do in that situation and it was big to get out of it.”
Right-hander Beau Brieske took it home, collecting the final six outs. Which was critical because back-end relievers Will Vest and Tommy Kahnle were both able to rest ahead of the four-game series with Cleveland that starts Thursday at Comerica Park.
Almost as if it was scripted. Or not.
“You have to be careful over-scripting days like today because you might miss something,” Hinch said. “Look at the way Hurter got into the game. And Chase Lee, who just got back here and has no idea how long he’s going to be here. So why limit yourself without watching the game and watching how they’re doing.”
For the second game in a row, the middle of the Tigers’ batting order ignited the offense. Riley Greene and Torkelson, hitting third and fourth, reached base in each of their first three at-bats. Greene, who had three hits and four RBI Tuesday, ended up with a single, two walks and three runs scored.
In the fourth inning, Cardinals’ starter Andre Pallante walked Greene with two outs ahead of Torkelson.
“I’d walk him, too, if I were them,” Torkelson said.
But Torkelson made him pay, lining a double in the gap in right-center, scoring Greene from first.
“I feel like yesterday (0 for 4) I lost my approach a little bit,” Torkelson said. “Today my only goal was to stick to the basics and trust it and we’re going to let that payoff and it did.”
The Tigers, who broke the game open in the top of the eighth with a two-out, two-run single by Javier Baez, drew six walks and two hit batsmen.
“For our guys, we never go up looking to walk,” Hinch said. “We made a few outs on the bases today (two) and we never hang our heads. We didn’t have perfect at-bats. But the middle of our order, Riley coming up, Tork coming up — the first six times they came up something positive happened.”
And right behind them, No. 5-hole hitter Colt Keith had a sacrifice fly, a double and scored a run. Dillon Dingler had a single and an RBI. Sweeney had a sacrifice fly.
“When you have three guys in a row in the lineup, no matter who they are, putting up quality at-bats, it’s fun to turn the lineup over,” Hinch said. “Javy’s two-out hit separated us. Colt’s sacrifice fly, Sweeney — those are the little things that create a 5-1 win.”
Lee’s reward for earning his first big-league win, of course, was the traditional beer shower. Though this time, it might’ve been devoid of actual beer or food stuff.
“It was fun,” he said. “First off, thanks to the Lord for the gift and opportunity to play the game. And for the teammates that celebrated and the win. That’s what we’re here for, to try to win.”
Asked where this first will rank among all the other firsts he’s accomplished this year, Lee said, “I don’t have a hierarchy but every win is important. We’re trying to win as many games as we can and hopefully be the last team (standing) at the end of the year. Every win counts.
“Personally, it’s more about winning as a team. Personal accolades are cool, but someone once told me, the only stat that matters for a pitcher is appearances. That’s all I’m trying to focus on and winning games as a team.”
@cmccosky
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