Nothing, then everything
Six innings produced two runs. The seventh produced seven.
Toronto had taken those first two in the opening inning at the Rogers Centre on Monday night. Alejandro Kirk singled to left-center to bring home the first, and George Springer came in on a wild pitch moments later. Detroit then went quiet for five and a half innings and looked like a team playing out a schedule.
The seventh changed that in about ten minutes. Dillon Dingler singled to left to put the Tigers on the board. Max Clark doubled into the same corner and two runs came around, Dingler and Riley Greene both scoring. Spencer Torkelson followed with a double of his own, his 25th of the season, and Detroit had a 4-2 lead nobody in the building had seen coming.
Try it for $0.99.
Okamoto hits back, Guerrero does not
Kazuma Okamoto answered in the bottom half. Kirk and Springer were aboard when he pulled his 33rd home run of the year over the left-field wall. The swing moved him to 88 runs batted in and put Toronto back in front at 5-4 with six outs to protect.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. spent the night leaving runners where he found them. He drew a walk, went hitless in three at-bats and stranded six. That is a harsh follow-up to Sunday, when he ended a long wait for a home run in front of his own crowd and got a curtain call for it.
A closer, and an error
Louie Varland came out for the ninth with 33 saves and a 1.23 earned run average across 73 and a third innings. Toronto has leaned on him all year. This time Detroit put two on the board without much of a fight from the bat. Zach McKinstry scored on a fielding error by Varland, Hao-Yu Lee reaching base on the same play, and the Tigers walked off the field 6-5 winners.
Detroit arrived in Toronto at 70-79 and leave at 71-79. The Blue Jays sit at 75-76, back under .500, with the calendar giving them less room every night. Springer finished with two runs and two walks, Kirk with two hits, and neither of them had anything to show for it.
Discover the rest of our MLB news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply