CLEVELAND - The Tigers left Progressive Field with another gut punch Sunday, and another lesson tucked inside it.
Detroit was walked off by the Guardians for the third time in four games, falling 3-2 in the series finale on Sept. 6.
In the bottom of the 10th, with reliever Kyle Finnegan on the mound, Daniel Schneemann singled home the free runner Angel Genao to end it. It was the Guardians’ seventh walk-off win of the season.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 65-78, and they’ve now gone 5-17 since Aug. 14.
For Detroit, though, this stretch is less about the standings than what’s being revealed along the way. The lineup reflected that Sunday, with six rookies in it and veterans Spencer Torkelson, Javier Báez, Gleyber Torres and Zach McKinstry all on the bench. And in the middle of the defeat, Jackson Jobe gave the Tigers something to hold onto.
The 24-year-old right-hander, making his sixth start back from Tommy John surgery, looked shaky right away. He barely made it through the first inning in one piece, then settled in and showed the kind of stuff Detroit has been waiting to see. By the end of five innings, he had allowed only four hits, struck out a season-high seven and left with the game tied 2-2.
The one pitch he missed over the heart of the plate got punished. With one out in the fifth, Jobe left a 0-2 changeup up to Brayan Rocchio, and Rocchio drove it into the seats in right to tie the game. It was one of only two hard-hit balls Jobe allowed.
Before that, Jobe had navigated a first inning that felt like it could unravel. Steven Kwan and Travis Bazzana opened with back-to-back doubles, and Jobe’s command was all over the place - yanking some pitches glove side, spraying others arm side.
He walked two straight batters on nine pitches to load the bases, then fell behind 3-1 to Genao before battling back for a strikeout with a 96-mph four-seam fastball. He followed that by getting Patrick Bailey to ground out on the first pitch and escape the inning after 27 pitches.
From there, the outing changed fast. In the second, Jobe began mixing and locating his curveball and changeup, struck out the side, and settled into a strong rhythm. The pitch count caught up to him - 93 pitches through five - but the overall package was encouraging: the quality of the stuff, and the way he carried himself after a rough opening.
Detroit’s offense gave him support early and then went quiet. Riley Greene, coming off a two-homer, four-RBI performance Saturday, ripped a two-run double into the right-center gap off Guardians starter Gavin Williams in the first inning, a ball he smoked at 111 mph. Greene doubled again in the third, but that was the Tigers’ last hit against Williams over six innings.
The strikeout total kept climbing, too. After fanning 12 times in six innings against Parker Messick on Saturday, the Tigers struck out 11 times in six innings against Williams.
And once Williams handed things to Cleveland’s bullpen, the night tightened even more. Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith combined to shut the door, and Detroit never put a ball in play for a hit against that three-man group. The Tigers’ only traffic after the third inning came via walks - three baserunners, all of them free passes.
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