Tigers 5, Giants 4: Wow, this time they held on and won

The finale of a three-game weekend series in San Francisco featured a major league first home run, two rundowns in the same inning and a 5-4 Tigers victory on Sunday afternoon. Two late-inning losses hurt, but the Tigers still manage a .500 road record despite the long injury list.

Climbing to the top of the little hill for the visitors today was Keider Montero. He and the rest of the Tigers rotation could probably fit comfortably in a phone booth. (Remember phone booths?) His previous appearance was a solid six-inning stint in Seattle, in which he allowed four hits, a single run and eight strikeouts. He’s usually pretty good when he can keep the walks down… which he didn’t. quite do today.

Hayden Birdsong, a 2022 sixth-round pick out of Eastern Illinois University who began this season in Double-A Richmond, made his eighth career start in his rookie year for the Californians. He got a rough go at it a few days ago in Washington, but that was really the only time he’s lost a game since being called up. He’s usually played five or six innings, allowed two runs, walked two or three and had a couple of strikeouts, though that’s been trending up lately.

Matt Vierling jumped the entire pitch on the sixth pitch of the game, a slider right into the pipe, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The Giants got that run back and more; two walks from Montero loaded the bases with one out, and Matt Chapman’s single brought in two runs and left runners on the corners. Two groundouts got Montero out of the inning, but you had to wonder if the walks would actually be a problem.

Dillon Dingler, still looking for his first home run … well, he hit one in the second inning, off a single by Zach McKinstry:

A walk and a single in the bottom half of the inning put the Giants back on the corners, but this time with two outs. However, Heliot Ramos chased a high fastball from Montero for strike three, and the threat was averted.

Dingler continued his extra-base power with a long ground-rule double to deep right-center field in the fifth inning. He moved to third base on a flyout by Akil Baddoo, and Vierling joined in the double party with a double of his own down the left field line to give Dingler a 4-2 lead. That was the start of the third and the end of Birdsong’s day. Colt Keith then brought Baddoo home with a left-to-left single to right field for a 5-2 lead.

He’s been a bit defeated lately, so it’s nice to see him land an important hit.

By now, Montero had settled in well after that first inning and had two very short innings in the third and fourth. He walked LaMonte Wade Jr. with one out in the fifth inning, but he got a ground ball from Ramos that turned into a double play and ended the inning.

Two walks in the sixth inning put the Tigers on first and second base with one out, and the Giants brought in right-handed reliever Sean Hjelle (pronounced like “jelly”). I wouldn’t normally mention something like this, but Hjelle is 7’1″, which is definitely big. He got a lineout and a flyout, and that was the end of the threat.

In the bottom of the inning, Michael Conforto hit a leadoff triple and was brought back in by a Chapman single, cutting the lead to 5-3. That ended Montero’s day and Tyler Holton came in as a reliever. Old Friend™ Mark Canha worked a walk, but Holton worked a groundball double play and got two outs. Unfortunately, Holton didn’t get out of the inning unscathed, as a double by Jerar Encarnacion brought Chapman home and made it a one-run game. However, Holton worked another grounder and that got him and the Tigers out of the inning.

The Tigers got going in the seventh inning with a single by Andy Ibáñez and a walk by Justyn-Henry Malloy with two outs. But Urshela hit a grounder to first base and Wade made a nice play for the third out.

In the second half of the inning, Tyler Fitzgerald reached first base on an error by Urshela and was sacrificed to second base. Holton was thrown out in favor of Brenan Hanifee and two groundouts left the tying point at second base.

Chapman opened the eighth with a triple and Canha followed with a grounder to shortstop. Chapman ran to home base, Javier Báez (who came in as a pinch-runner for Malloy and stayed at shortstop) threw to the plate and the Tigers finally retired Chapman with a run down.

Patrick Bailey followed with a comebacker to Hanifee, who turned and threw to Báez at shortstop, and they caught Canha in another Rundown. A routine grounder to third base ended the inning – but considering that Fangraphs’ Run Expectancy Matrix suggests that 1,426 runs will be scored in an inning in which a team gets a runner to third base and no outs occur, well… great job all around, guys!

The Tigers looked to add a little more safety in the ninth inning with a slim one-run lead, and Baddoo led off with a single. With two out, Keith hit a single to put runners on the corners for Báez, who promptly made a soft groundout to third to end the safety attempt and leave a pair on the way.

Will Vest took over for the win, getting a lineout and a groundout in relatively short order, but then he let Wade walk to get the tying run to first base, and a violent spasm of various body parts ensued. Vest got a 1-2 count on Ramos, and Ramos was called for excessive window shopping on a perfectly painted four-seamer for strike three and the win. It was Vest’s first save of the year.

The Tigers have Monday off to recover from the travel and time change, then play a three-game series at home against the Mariners on Tuesday night. I expect there are still good tickets available.

Result: Tigers 5, Giants 4

Glass is quite cheap, blue

They also messed up a wrong balk call (but then corrected it).

Numbers and things

• Since the All-Star break, Gio Urshela has left a little to be desired at the plate. In 63 at-bats, he was 10-for-54 with three doubles, with a .185 batting average and a .495 OPS. Yuck. But did have a nice play on third base in the sixth inning to end the inning.
• An audience microphone for the broadcast must have been placed very close to someone who repeatedly shouted: “COME ON, BLUE!“But yes, as mentioned above, some pretty strange decisions were made throughout the day.
• Phoenix played a set at the Olympics closing ceremony. I had completely forgotten they existed, but hey, they’re pretty good.
• Today would have been singer-songwriter Eric Carmen’s 75th birthday, but he passed away earlier this year. Whether you know him from his time with power-pop legends The Raspberries or from his later solo work like “Hungry Eyes,” he was definitely quite talented. At a Toledo Mud Hens game a few years ago, the stadium’s Kiss Cam was on between innings, and at the end of the intermission, the camera on the scoreboard switched to a visiting pitcher sitting alone in the bullpen playing Carmen’s “All By Myself.”