TIGERS’ MOUND TROUBLES BAD TIMING IN PLAYOFF HUNT
There’s a danger in having to ride young players in the middle of a playoff chase.
The Detroit Tigers have gotten plenty of help from young pitchers Matt Boyd, Michael Fulmer and Daniel Norris, but not on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Boyd lasted just five batters and was charged with four runs in what would become a 12-9 loss by the Tigers to the Kansas City Royals before 33,375 at Comerica Park.
“It could have been mechanical,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “It could have been an off day. It could have been a young pitcher in a pennant environment. He looked under control. I don’t think the emotions got the best of him.”
The performance came a day after 34-year-old veteran closer Francisco Rodrigues blew his fifth save of the season as he let a two-run lead get away in the ninth inning and look the loss in a 7-4 decision.
“The margin for error is zero right now,” Boyd said of the playoff race. “I definitely could have fixed it (if I had stayed out there longer), but I put myself in that hole.
“At this time of year, every run counts, every game counts and you can’t let me work through it out there. I have to be sharper than that.”
The back-to-back losses take Detroit from a half-game lead on the Baltimore Orioles to a gameand-a-half back of the final wildcard spot in the American League heading into the final week of the season.
“You don’t want to lose late when you’re playing for a playoff spot,” Ausmus said. “It feels like every loss, at times, is insurmountable, but the truth is it’s not insurmountable. We still have a week of games left.”
Four of those seven games are against the Cleveland Indians, who come into Monday’s game at Comerica Park needing a single win to clinch the Central Division and boasting a 13-2 record against the Tigers this season.
“It’s time to turn that around,” Tigers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. “We were playing good baseball (before the back-to-back losses). We’ve been putting some wins together.
“It’s not over until the last game of the season. You obviously don’t want that to happen. We’ve got to look at today as a bad day, turn it over for tomorrow and focus on what we’ve got to do.”
But a better effort against the defending World Series champion Royals certainly would have helped.
Kansas City won’t make the playoffs this season, but the club’s 12-7 record this season against Detroit could wind up costing the Tigers in the end.
“We grinded the best we could,” Saltalamacchia said. “We tried to come back and couldn’t. Everyone who came in (in relief ) tried to keep us in the game. We just couldn’t get it done.”
To be fair, Detroit’s offence would cover Boyd’s first-inning struggles, but not the ensuing runs allowed by its multimilliondollar bullpen of former starters.
Blaine Hardy got Detroit out of the first inning and, after a clean inning of relief by Anibal Sanchez, he was touched up in the third inning for three runs, which included back-to-back home runs by No. 8 hitter Cheslor Cuthbert and No. 9 hitter Raul Mondesi that put the Royals up 7-0 in the third inning.
Sanchez has instead been bounced to the bullpen for much of the year because he’s been outpitched by Boyd (6-5). Sanchez has now allowed 30 home runs this season.
Former starter Mike Pelfrey also came on in relief and didn’t hide his disgust when Alex Gordon launched a two-run shot to put the Royals up 11-5 in the sixth inning.
“Not fun from a catching standpoint,” Saltalamacchia said. “You want to keep as many runs and hits out of there as possible. It was a tough game.”
Victor Martinez hit a grand slam to get the Tigers within 7-4 in the third inning, but every time the offence put runs on the board, the bullpen could not hold and Ausmus had no answer for an attempted bunt by Andrew Romine later in the third inning with two outs and the bases loaded that forced J.D. Martinez at home to snuff out a rally.
As for the relievers, even Jordan Zimmermann, who has made two starts since June, got in three innings of relief and allowed just one run, but it came after the Tigers had scored two to make it a one-run game heading into the ninth.
Detroit got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning twice, but Gordon’s sliding catch on a Miguel Cabrera bid for a base hit ended things.