Baltimore — The Tigers don’t rate wins. They don’t give or takeaway style points. Every win matters. There is no such thing as a bad win.
That said, things could hardly have gone much better for the Tigers Tuesday night, in their methodical 5-3 win over the Orioles in the first of three at Camden Yards.
“It was a complete win,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “All wins feel good, no matter how we get them, no matter how pretty or not pretty they are. This one was a pretty win.”
It was pretty because they won all phases. The pitching was both utilized expertly to exploit favorable matchups and neutralize one side of the Orioles’ lineup and it performed. The defense was solid to spectacular. And the hitting was clutch.
“We’re going to play through the whole at-bat,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We have a pretty resilient group and we did put some pretty good swings together and we put some good innings together maybe when you least expected it.”
Four of the five runs were scored with two outs. Torkelson’s 16th homer of the season, a 419-foot, two-run blast in a three-run fifth inning, came on a 3-2 pitch. Ten of his 16 home runs have been hit in two-strike counts.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Orioles 3
“My 0-0 swing and my 1-0 swing and my 2-0 swing, I’m not trying to do too much,” Torkelson said. “It’s just like a two-strike approach. Nothing changes unless I’m not seeing the guy well or situation-permitting when a ball needs to be put in play.
“It’s 1-2 and I’m just in compete mode and I still get a good pitch and I put a good swing on it.”
All the damage came against Orioles’ left-handed starter Cade Povich and the offensive spark was lit by two Tigers’ lefties.
Zach McKinstry, who came into the game hitting .358 against lefties, which was the second highest average by a lefty and against a lefty in baseball, hit a pair of triples and scored a run.
They were his sixth and seventh three-baggers of the year, tying him with Boston’s Jarren Duran for most in the majors.
And Riley Greene, another lefty, started his day by working a 10-pitch walk off Povich. It was clear he was on every pitch, whether he swung or took it.
He singled in the third, then doubled and scored in a three-run fifth.
“It’s us sticking to our plan,” Greene said. “It’s us being prepared and it’s us wanting it. Everyone says it’s gritty. But we are actually trying to dig in and get down and work our butts off.”
This isn’t a fluke. It wasn’t a one-off or an anomaly. This is what they’ve been doing. They lead baseball in two-out runs (139).
“You have to stay in the inning and come up with some good swings and the inning continues,” Hinch said. “To separate ourselves and get some key two-out and two-strike hits — that’s winning baseball.”
Speaking of winning baseball: The Tigers (44-24) are now 20 games over .500 for the first time since the end of 2013 when they finished 93-69. They also improve to 21-15 on the road and 16-2 against teams from the American League East.
“It just makes life easier being able to trust everybody in the lineup, one through nine, to do their part and grind out at-bats and to get on base for the guy behind them,” Torkelson said. “It’s a privilege to be in this lineup.”
About the Tigers’ pitching strategy. It might’ve looked familiar. It was the opener-bulk reliever deployment Hinch used to so much success the final two months of last season.
It still works.
Because the Orioles feature such a left-handed heavy lineup, and because right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long was making his second start back after missing 18 months, Hinch used lefty Brant Hurter to “open” the game.
And Hurter validated his manager’s strategy.
He ended up going 2.2 innings, getting through the dangerous top of the Orioles’ batting order twice before departing.
“Sawyer can handle it (starting), it’s not a knock on Sawyer,” Hinch said. “It’s pro-Hurter and the things he can do against their lineup, which is predominantly left-handed. This was the right matchup.”
The only smudge was a world-class at-bat by Gunnar Henderson in the third inning. Henderson was going to be Hurter’s last batter, regardless. Righty Chase Lee was warming for right-handed hitter Ramon Laureano, who was due up after Henderson.
And with two outs and Jackson Holliday at second, Hurter emptied the tank. He mixed power sinkers and sweepers and got ahead 1-2. But Henderson kept spoiling pitches and taking smartly laying off a couple just off the edge.
Finally, on the 10th pitch, Henderson hit a laser into right-center to score the run.
But mission accomplished for Hurter.
“I think I did alright,” said Hurter, who struck out three. “I wasn’t perfect. I would’ve liked to go farther and get through that third inning. But overall, I did OK.”
After Lee punched out Laureano, the runway was clear for Gipson-Long and he took off.
Gipson-Long breezed from the fourth through the seventh, allowing just one hit with five strikeouts. The velocity on all of his pitches ticked up from his first outing (four-seamer at 94.5 mph) but he was leaning heavily on his changeup, which induced six whiffs on 11 swings.
“He was incredible,” Hinch said. “I think Hurter was really good, too. It was a really good day on the mound, but it’s really due to Hurter and us getting the ball to Sawyer in a good place. And Sawyer was incredible.”
Fittingly, it was the top of the Orioles’ order, the one Hinch sought to negate by starting Hurter, left the only mark against Gipson-Long. Holliday doubled and scored on a long sacrifice fly to the wall in left by Adley Rutschman.
A double by Henderson, the only changeup put in play by the Orioles, ended Gipson-Long’s night.
“I was mentioning that to the trainers, like coming back from TJ (Tommy John surgery), the first season you are never who you are,” Hurter said, talking about Gipson-Long. “The fact he was able to command all of his pitches — as one who has gone through TJ — that was by far the most impressive thing he did in this outing.”
Tommy Kahnle got the final out of the eighth (striking out Ryan O’Hearn). Will Vest gave up a leadoff homer to Jordan Westburg to start the ninth, just the second he’s allowed this season, before getting the final three outs to earn his 11th save.
“We’re just asking guys to contribute to a win,” Hinch said. “And that’s what these guys continue to do.”
@cmccosky
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.