‘DIDN’T GO OUR WAY’
Another costly fielding error comes back to bite Detroit in 9-7 loss to Rangers
For a second straight game, an error in the infield did the Tigers in during the late stages of a loss to the Texas Rangers.
A day after the Tigers’ poor ninth-inning fielding allowed the Rangers to steal a 5-4 win at Comerica Park, the Rangers’ winning run on Thursday scored in the eighth inning after the Tigers missed an easy opportunity to tag a runner in a rundown.
With one out and Leody Taveras at second, Marcus Semien hit a ground ball to shortstop Javier Báez, who caught the baserunner leaving early. But upon the ball being relayed to third baseman Gio Urshela, the tag could not be applied and Taveras made it safely to third.
Instead of being able to tag the base and end the inning on a ground ball to Spencer Torkelson the next at-bat, the Tigers’ first baseman tried throwing it to second for a double play. But Torkelson’s throw was off the mark, allowing Taveras to score the deciding run of a 9-7 Rangers win in the series finale.
“Pretty athletic play by Taveras,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Javy made the right read, Colt (Keith) ran him, Gio closed the gap, and when he got him, Taveras made a great play. He got underneath the tag, Gio tried to go
down to the ground.”
Hinch admitted the Tigers “made plenty of mistakes” but called the tag error “an athletic play that didn’t go our way.”
The Tigers committed six total errors in the final two games of the series.
“(That’s) baseball,” Hinch said. “I mean, it’s not the unknown because it’s just — you’ve got to handle the ball. Everybody does it across the league. When you mishandle the ball and give the other side extra outs or an extra 90 (feet on the base paths), it puts yourself in really, really tough spots.”
Both starters — Tigers’ Kenta Maeda and Rangers’ Jack Leiter, the latter of whom was making his MLB debut — were roughed up by a pair of energetic offenses in the early goings. Maeda went 2 2/3 innings while giving up seven hits, six runs, two walks and three home runs with two strikeouts for the Tigers (10-9). Leiter, meanwhile, went 3 2/3 innings and gave up eight hits, seven runs, three walks and struck out three for the Rangers.