Detroit — It felt like the Tigers were waiting around to die Saturday night.
Finally, in the 10th inning, the Guardians obliged them.
Cleveland scored four times off reliever Brenan Hanifee and beat the Tigers for a third straight night at Comerica Park, 7-5.
For most of this still young season, things have gone the Tigers’ way. So far in this series against their Central Division rivals, the team that ended their season in the ALDS last October, nothing has.
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “For anyone to come in here and beat us in a four-game series, to beat us one game, it sucks. It hurts, whether it’s Cleveland or you name it. We hate losing.”
The hallmarks of the Tigers’ early success — clutch hitting, finishing at-bats, timely run-saving defensive plays, winning the matchup battle on both sides of the plate — the Guardians have done those things better the last three nights.
“It’s been a lot more than just not capitalizing,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “We just got outplayed. That’s the frustrating part.”
That Hinch had to use Hanifee in the 10th inning speaks to how things have gone awry this weekend. Because lefty Sean Guenther was used on Wednesday (in a bullpen game) and Thursday, the club decided to option him back to Toledo Friday and not right-hander Chase Lee, to clear a roster spot for Matt Vierling.
Guenther wouldn’t have been able to pitch Friday and possibly not Saturday and with Tarik Skubal starting Sunday, maybe not the rest of the series. So they kept Lee and left themselves short one lefty for the lefty-dominant Guardians the rest of the series.
That’s why the righty Hanifee was in the game in the 10th, despite a pocket of lefties coming up.
“We were up against it,” Hinch said. “What you saw is what we had left in the ‘pen, plus John Brebbia (another right-hander). Hanifee can get those outs but that’s not necessarily his role. But that’s where we were at.”
Lefty Brant Hurter was already used to get five outs. Lefty Tyler Holton had pitched in two of the previous three games, same for right-hander Beau Brieske. And Hinch had used Tommy Kahnle and Will Vest to get through the seventh, eighth and ninth Saturday.
“Every time a guy had to come in earlier in an inning was costly,” Hinch said.
Kahnle was summoned in the seventh after Hurter hit Steven Kwan with two outs. Kahnle finished the seventh in one pitch, but ended up yielding the tying run in the eighth. Vest got the final out in the eighth, getting pinch-hitter Nolan Jones to ground out with the bases loaded, and then pitched a clean ninth.
Maybe if he just pitches the ninth, Hinch sends him back for the 10th.
“We just kept passing the ball to the next reliever in a game that we were operating with a short ‘pen dating back to the bullpen game (Wednesday),” Hinch said. “It kept draining our bullpen.”
The damn broke in the 10th. Lefty-swinging Kyle Manzardo sliced a double to left field to score the free runner. Angel Martinez, switch-hitter batting lefty, ripped a two-strike double to right to score another. After a sacrifice fly by Bo Naylor, Nolan Jones, lefty, lined an RBI single to cap it.
“This is a tough league,” Hinch said. “You’re up against a contact team and an almost entirely left-handed lineup. It wasn’t entirely poor execution (by Hanifee). We have to do a better job of getting him in a better spot.”
The Tigers, after laying dormant for six innings, scored two runs off closer Emmanuel Clase in the bottom of the 10th on a two-run double by Gleyber Torres. Insufficient.
“We had a great start,” Hinch said. “Our guys came out and put up really good at-bats. I thought we did a really good job of bringing a ton of energy and then everything went quiet. We didn’t do much the rest of the game.”
BOX SCORE: Guardians 7, Tigers 5 (10 innings)
Kerry Carpenter and Colt Keith doubled in the first inning and then with two out and two on, Vierling, in just his second at-bat since being activated off the injured list Friday, slapped a two-run single to right field in his second at-bat of the season.
They had Guardians starter Luis Ortiz at 27 pitches and wobbling. And then the punches stopped.
“We definitely felt like we had him on the ropes,” Torkelson said. “It felt like we had some good at-bats and he got away with some pitches. It’s frustrating in the moment. But we’re not beating ourselves up too much.”
While Casey Mize, in his first start since going on the IL May 8, held the Guardians to two third-inning runs in five innings, the Tigers couldn’t extend the lead. They didn’t get a hit and had only two baserunners between the fourth and 10th innings. They were either hitting balls into the ground (nine ground-ball outs in that span) or striking out (seven).
“It’s baseball,” Torkelson said. “We’ve been really hot, clutch hitting, pretty much the entire year so far. So a couple of games without it, no panic.”
The other side of the coin, though, the Guardians had nine two-strike hits. Jose Ramirez hit a two-strike splitter from Mize in the third inning with two outs and runners at the corners. The ball was well off the plate and he still was able to scoop it into center to drive in the run.
In the eighth, with the Tigers still clinging to a 3-2 lead, Ramirez led off with a 3-2 single off Kahnle and went to third on 2-2 single by Manzardo. Kahnle got Carlos Santana to foul out and Martinez to hit a broken-bat grounder to Torkelson who was playing in on the grass.
Torkelson never looked to second to start a possible double play. He threw home immediately but Ramirez beat the tag from catcher Jake Rogers to tie the score.
“I make that play 100 out of 100 times,” Torkelson said. “Slowly hit, just a little unlucky with the runner at third being a great baserunner and as fast as Jose is. That’s the right play. A foot and a half more up the line and he’s out. I’m taking that chance.”
Hinch agreed.
“Where we were at in that play, your instinct is to go home,” he said. “If it’s more toward the line, he has a better chance of throwing him out. Good baseball play.”
The Tigers (33-20) still have the best record in the American League, but they’ve lost five straight to defending Central Division champion Cleveland dating to the ALDS.
“It’s not incredibly frustrating,” Torkelson said. “At least not yet.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
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