Detroit – It’s not necessarily conventional the way the Tigers win baseball games.
Most teams won’t pinch-hit for one of their hottest hitters in the fourth inning after he’s already delivered two hits. But manager AJ Hinch does. And he makes no apologies for it.
“It’s part of how this team is built,” he said after the Tigers secured an 11-6, rain-shortened win over the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday at Comerica Park.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 11, Cardinals 6
The Tigers were up 6-0 when Colt Keith’s third at-bat came around with one out in the fourth inning. Parker Meadows, who had tripled in a run, was at third and the Cardinals summoned lefty reliever Justin Bruihl to face the lefty-swinging Keith.
Hinch sent up right-handed hitter Matt Vierling, who delivered a sacrifice fly to score what for a few innings looked to be an important run. The move also allowed the Tigers to play with their best outfield defense for the remainder of the game, with Vierling in right, Meadows in center and Riley Greene in left.
Zach McKinstry moved from right field to replace Keith at third base.
“We have a massive strength in Matty V.,” Hinch said. “I talked to Colt in the dugout and I didn’t even have to. He totally understands how we’re trying to win.”
Keith was the first person to greet Vierling in the dugout after the sacrifice fly and he was there in celebration line later when Vierling clubbed an opposite-field, two-run home run in the eighth.
“Our guys are all-in,” Hinch said. “That’s why I love them.”
Tigers pitchers get some breathing room
The game itself, with 12 walks and six hit-batsmen and a ninth-inning rain delay, isn’t going win any prizes for baseball aesthetics. But the Tigers don’t care about style points.
Any W is a good W.
“Amazing,” said Kerry Carpenter, who kick-started the offense with an opposite-field, two-run homer in the first. “If it was up to us hitters, we’d put up 11 runs every game, but of course it doesn’t always go like that. It was nice to give our pitchers some breathing room. Whatever we can do to help them. They’ve bailed us out a lot.”
McKinstry (three RBI), Gleyber Torres and Vierling also hit home runs as the Tigers scored in five of their eight innings. Meadows had a pair of hits and a walk.
The game was played in a steady rain from the seventh inning on and it was coming down hard with one out in the top of the ninth when umpire crew Mark Wegner called for the tarp. The infield was soaked through.
After about a 30-minute delay, the game was called.
“We talked about the small window we had to work on the field combined with the forecast that was ahead and no assurance that there was going to be more time to play,” Hinch said. “You can’t just get back on the field and play with the way that field was.
“It’s whatever is in the best interest of player safety.”
Tough day for Tigers’ Jack Flaherty
It was a tough day for Tigers starter Jack Flaherty, who, despite the big lead, never was able to lock in his command. He walked four and hit three, a feat no Tigers pitcher had done since 1925.
“We had a hard time on the mound across the board,” Hinch said. “But I thought Jack collected himself a little bit in the middle of his outing. But he had a hard time syncing up his delivery and the execution that come with that. But he made some really big pitches and did a good job of staying tough through some self-inflicted issues.”
Flaherty walked and hit a batter in three different innings. Through four innings, he was able to win enough key battles to keep the Cardinals at bay.
“Credit the offense and credit (catcher Dillon) Dingler for finding a way to get me through that,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty paid the toll for all the free bases in the fifth. Going through the Cardinals’ lineup a third time, he hit J.J. Wetherhold and walked Ivan Herrera to start the inning and gave up an RBI double to Alec Burleson.
After he walked Nolan Gorman to load the bases, Hinch brought in right-hander Drew Anderson.
Jordan Walker cleared the bases, unloading on a 1-0 four-seamer up and in. The ball flew 459 feet, banging it off the bricks beyond the visitors’ bullpen near Al Kaline’s No. 6 marker. The grand slam cut the Tigers’ lead to one in a hurry.
But that ended up being the Cardinals’ last push.
“The boys came out and scored some runs and we won the game,” Flaherty said. “The bullpen did a good job after that fifth inning and we put up 11 runs. We should win that game every time. Credit to the offense.”
The game offered another teaching point for rookie Kevin McGonigle. He singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Carpenter in the third inning. When he got to the dugout, Hinch pulled him aside for a base running lesson.
First, he explained why, with a left-handed hitter in the box, he wasn’t going on contact, which normally he would with one out. But that wasn’t the main lesson.
“We want him inside the baseline (while taking his lead from third base), even with their infield in,” Hinch said. “It shuts off the lane for the catcher to throw down to third base. That’s very normal for our guys but Kevin is new and that was something we hadn’t gone over. It was our fault we were teaching that during the game.
“If he gets hit with a line drive, he’s out. We know that. But the likelihood of that happening is worth the risk of the catcher having an open lane to throw and potentially pick him off.”
Never not learning.
@cmccosky
