HANGIN’ TOUGH, STAYIN’ HUNGRY
Detroit loses its first game of season in twinbill split with Mets, but recent streak a promising sign
They might be a little road weary, coming home after six weeks in Florida and then six games in eight days, the last two in a make-up doubleheader Thursday, but the Tigers are coming home and they’re ready to party.
“It’s always a holiday in Detroit,” manager AJ Hinch said of the home opener at Comerica Park. “They do such a great job putting on a show. Our fans show up. It’s a party. It’s always an awesome day in Detroit.”
They are coming home on the wings of a 5-1 start, though the loss came in gut-punch fashion, a 2-1 walk-off loss to the Mets in Game 2 Thursday.
They’d won Game 1 against the Mets in 11 innings, 6-3, and took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning of the nightcap. The Mets didn’t get a hit until the eighth inning. But against Alex Faedo, Pete Alonso led off the bottom of the ninth with a line-drive solo homer to left center.
Brett Baty walked and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Starling Marte. And Tyrone Taylor ended it, lashing an RBI single into the corner in left.
Right-hander Matt Manning, the last starting pitcher cut this spring and summoned as the 27th man, did not allow a hit in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. The only smudge was four walks, but he pitched masterfully.
With catcher Jake Rogers calling the pitches, Manning cleverly mixed sweepers, sliders and curveballs off his 93-94 mph four-seam fastball.
Case in point: He struck out Francisco Lindor and Alonso back to back to end the third inning. With Lindor, Manning set him up with fastballs and finished him with a curve. With Alonso, he got to two strikes with his heater and then punched him out with a sweeper.
Other times he would throw the sweeper off the curve or vice versa.
The walks, though, pushed up his pitch count. He was at 90 pitches with two outs in the sixth and dangerous left-handed hitting Baty was coming up. Hinch went to lefty Tyler Holton, who struck out Baty in three pitches.
The Tigers pushed across the run in the second inning. Colt Keith, who had the go-ahead RBI double in the 11th inning of Game 1, walked, stole second and kept on going to third when the throw went into center field. He scored on a single by Javier Báez.
The pitching in this series, though, was brilliant. Reese Olson and four relievers blanked the Mets over 10 innings Tuesday. After Casey Mize was scratched for three runs in Game 1 Thursday, the bullpen shut the door over the remaining innings.
When the Mets came to bat in the eighth inning in Game 2, they