Andrew Graham
 | Special to The Detroit News
Opening the series a day late due to rain, the Tigers (23-13) won, 8-6, in 10 innings against the Colorado Rockies (6-29) in Denver on Wednesday night, propelled to the win by a timely go-ahead double from Spencer Torkelson in the 10th inning.
After five innings of scoreless baseball, it only took Torkelson a few pitches to break the tie, slapping a double into the gap in right-center field and scoring ghost runner Riley Greene from second base in the top of the 10th. Detroit added an insurance run as Torkelson scored on a bobbled fly ball in the outfield off the bat of Trey Sweeney.
Sweeney finished 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs and an RBI. Javier Báez added a pair of hits and a team-high four RBI on the night. The Tigers’ bullpen combined to throw 6.1 innings of shutout baseball in relief, striking out six hitters.
Detroit and Colorado are slated to play a doubleheader on Thursday, with the regularly-scheduled game at 3:10 p.m., and the makeup game for the rain postponement to follow.
Jackson Jobe got the start for the Tigers on Wednesday, continuing his disjointed schedule by pitching on a full week’s rest after going 12 days off between starts. The Rockies managed to hit Jobe early and often.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 8, Rockies 6 (10)
In the bottom of the first inning, Ryan McMahon drilled a two-run homer to left-center field to open the scoring. Colorado tacked on another run in the bottom of the second inning, when Brenton Doyle ran out an infield single on a high chopper to third base, scoring Mickey Moniak when Zach McKinstry didn’t have a play on the run.
The Tigers finally rallied in the third inning, as Báez continued his hot-hitting by scoring Sweeney and Dillon Dingler on a single back up the middle. A Gleyber Torres sacrifice fly a few batters later scored Báez to tie the game, 3-3, going to the bottom of the inning.
Rockies starting pitcher Chase Dollander was also done after three innings, giving up six runs on five hits, plus two walks and a hit batter.
But the hits and runs kept coming for Colorado, as Michael Toglia smacked a two-run home run in the bottom of the third inning to give the Rockies the lead right back, 5-3.
Detroit responded in the top of the fourth inning as Báez again came up clutch, scoring Dingler and McKinstry to tie the game before a Colt Keith single scored Báez, giving the Tigers a 6-5 lead.
That lead was short-lived, though, as the Rockies plated the game-tying run in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Jordan Beck single, chasing Jobe from the game.
Jobe allowed eight hits, six runs, a walk and two strikeouts in 3.2 innings of work.
The 6-6 score held through the next four innings, but nearly broke in the bottom of the eighth inning. Tigers reliever Tommy Kahnle, a former Rockie, loaded the bases after giving up a leadoff double to Toglia (the Rockies’ first baseman had three extra base hits) and a pair of one-out walks.
He then picked up a strikeout and got lucky with a whistled liner to McKinstry at third base, ending the bases-loaded threat and sending the game to the ninth inning tied.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch went with one of his best bullpen arms in the ninth inning, Will Vest.
With one out, Vest faced McMahon, who at that point was 3-for-3 with a home run and a double, and then smacked another extra base hit off the wall in center field. McMahon cruised into second, in scoring position after nearly walking off the game.
Vest struck out the next two batters he faced — the Tigers intentionally walked Toglia — sending the game to extra innings.
Vest returned for the bottom of the 10th inning, and quickly walked a batter to have runners on first and second with no outs, and the winning run coming to the plate. But just like the eighth inning for Kahnle, the Tigers’ defense came through in the clutch, as McKinstry cleanly fielded a hard ground ball, stepped on the third-base bag and fired across the diamond to Torkelson for a double play.
Vest induced a fly out to Kerry Carpenter in right field for the final out.
Detroit had once again taken the lead, and this time it slammed the door shut for the series-opening win.
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
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