'We're never out of it': Tigers claw back for 5th straight win

ST. LOUIS -- The Tigers continued to find some winning magic Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers overcame a pair of multi-run deficits, turned in several clutch hitting and defensive performances and got a scoreless effort from a shorthanded bullpen. It added up to a 6-5 win in 10 innings over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium to extend Detroit’s winning streak to five games.

Akil Baddoo’s ground-rule double broke a 5-all tie in the 10th and Spencer Torkelson came up with a gutsy defensive play in the bottom of the frame as he snagged a hot shot off Alec Burleson’s bat to start the inning and threw to third to get the lead runner.

José Cisnero got the final two outs to nail down the win.

“We talked about character wins before the game, we talk about it now,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, pretty much across the board, we had to battle back twice, come through with a couple of big base hits, play some good defense, a lot of pitchers used mixing and matching all the way to the finish and then have a tough matchup at the end with [Nolan] Gorman, and Cis goes in and does the job. So, a really fun win.”

It was the second straight comeback win for the Tigers over the Cardinals.

Riley Greene gave the Tigers a spark by crashing into the wall to rob Andrew Knizner of an extra-base hit in the fourth and he capped a three-run rally in the top of the fifth with an RBI single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

Eric Haase’s single scored Baddoo to start the rally, and Haase came around to score on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Zach McKinstry, who popped into shallow right, but Haase alertly tagged when Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan collided with right fielder Lars Nootbaar while making the catch.

The Tigers had to chip away once again after falling behind 5-3. Torkelson had a pair of RBI singles to once again draw Detroit even. His hit in the sixth scored Nick Maton, and his two-out knock in the seventh plated Greene.

“We're never out of it,” Torkelson said. “We feel that way, like really strongly. We believe in one another and we believe in just passing the baton, having good at-bats, grinding the pitcher out and just making them pay for the mistakes.”

The Tigers had runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the ninth, but the inning ended on a Jonathan Schoop shallow fly to right that turned into a double play when Nootbaar made a perfect throw to get Andy Ibañez at home.

But the Tigers bullpen pitched around a hit and a walk in the bottom of the ninth to extend the game. Four relievers combined for 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

“We had a lot of guys down, and the guys that we had were fresh,” Hinch said. “So, it was nice to have [Tyler] Holton, we had [Tyler] Alexander up at the end, Cis back-to-back, [Will] Vest was completely ready to go which was nice and [Chasen] Shreve hadn't pitched in five or six days. So, we were rested and we're going to rely on every guy that we have down there in different ways.”

Spencer Turnbull turned in another outing with mixed results, allowing five runs in 4 2/3 innings of work. The right-hander allowed seven hits, struck out six and walked one.

The good was Turnbull’s ability to settle down after a rocky start. He retired 11 of 12 batters at one point from the second to the fifth inning and he struck out reigning National League MVP Paul Goldschmidt three times.

The bad came via the long ball as the Cardinals scored all of their runs on two swings of the bat. Dylan Carlson’s three-run homer in the second put the Tigers into an early hole, and Nolan Arenado sent a rocket in the fifth that landed in Big Mac Land that scored two runs.

“I was able to make a pretty good adjustment for the last three [innings], and then one pitch to Nolan there was just heartbreaking there for a second,” Turnbull said. “But [the] boys rallied back. We were able to pull out a win so that's all that matters.”

Arenado’s blast, which came after the Tigers had clawed back even at 3-all, ended Turnbull’s day.

Still, the Tigers were undeterred.

“We had 12 outs left,” Torkelson said. “You give us that many outs and two runs, and we have a really strong feeling that we can get those runs.”