The Detroit Tigers had just about everything happen Wednesday night at T-Mobile Park: hit batsmen, a benches-clearing flare-up, two ejections and one last push that almost turned the game. In the end, though, the offense that had carried them through a four-game winning streak finally ran out of gas in a 4-2 loss to the Mariners.
The tension spiked in the eighth when Gleyber Torres was hit by a pitch and had a few words with catcher Cal Raleigh, who had been plunked in the inning before. That set off the benches, brought the managers to the plate, and ended with left-handed reliever Gabe Speier tossed for hitting Torres, apparently in retaliation for Raleigh being hit by Enmanuel DeJesus. Seattle manager Dan Wilson was also ejected.
Detroit had already taken plenty of body blows before that. Max Clark, Riley Greene and Zack McKinstry were all hit by pitches as well. And even after the dust-up, the Tigers still made it interesting when Dillon Dingler launched a two-run homer off Eduard Bazardo to trim Seattle’s lead to 3-2.
That was as close as they would get.
Drew Anderson gave Detroit nearly four shutout innings in his start, but the bullpen couldn’t keep the Mariners from pulling away. The decisive damage came on Julio Rodriguez’s three-run homer off Brenan Hanifee in the sixth, a blast that snapped the game open for good.
At the plate, the Tigers had only a few real answers. Dingler had the homer and a single, Torres added a single, and Max Clark chipped in the lone other hit.
Clark’s came in the seventh after the crowd started chanting "OVER-RATED" at the rookie. He answered by driving a single into right-center.
Detroit also had a couple of near-misses that could have changed the tone. Randy Arozarena robbed Colt Keith of a home run and then threw out Torres at third base in the same inning. Torres nearly joined the long-ball party himself earlier, but his drive hit off the right-field wall instead.
Anderson, meanwhile, did exactly what the Tigers needed from him. He was signed after posting good numbers as a starter in Korea last season, then shifted into the bullpen this year because Detroit had too many starters.
With injuries and Monday’s trade deadline moves reshaping the staff, he was asked to cover innings Wednesday, and he did that job well. Manager A.J.
Hinch wanted three or four innings, and Anderson came up one out short of four while allowing three hits and no runs.
His cleanest escape came in the third, when Seattle opened the inning with an infield single and a normal single to put runners on first and second with no outs. Anderson settled in, got Colt Emerson to lift a soft fly ball, then induced Cole Young into a grounder to second on a changeup. Detroit turned the double play and walked away unscathed.
The Mariners broke through later, and the Tigers couldn’t recover. Tyler Horton had worked 23 pitches through two innings without allowing a hit, but Hinch went to Brenan Hanifee with two outs and nobody on in the sixth to get the right-on-right matchup against Arozarena.
Hanifee got ahead, then left a 94-mph sinker over the plate, and Arozarena lined a double to left. Hinch then intentionally walked Dominic Canzone to face Rodriguez, but Seattle’s best hitter punished the first pitch he saw - a 97 sinker up in the zone - and sent it into the left-field seats.
Now Detroit heads into Thursday’s rubber match trying to stop the slide before it starts to matter even more. Left-hander Framber Valdez gets the ball at 4:05 p.m. on Detroit SportsNet as the Tigers, now 55-59, try to take the series from the Mariners, who improved to 56-59.
The standings remain tight around them. Wednesday’s loss left Detroit 1½ games behind the Cleveland Guardians and the Texas Rangers, who moved into a tie for the AL’s final playoff spot at 57-58. The Baltimore Orioles are half a game back, and the Mariners sit half a game behind Baltimore and half a game ahead of the Tigers.
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