Tigers can't cash in with big hit in another close contest

CLEVELAND -- Riley Greene has been one of the most patient, selective hitters in baseball over the last few weeks, but he put Triston McKenzie’s first pitch Monday night over the fence in right-center at Progressive Field.

“I’m always attacking first pitch,” Greene insisted afterwards, “because that could be the only pitch you get.”

For a moment, it seemed like an opening statement for a Tigers offense that needed a jolt, and it came against the team that has led the American League Central for much of the season to date. Then McKenzie struck out Detroit’s next four hitters.

The fact that Greene also saw the last pitch of Detroit’s 2-1 loss was a sign of how things went from there. He connected with Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase’s 98 mile-per-hour cutter, but hit it on the ground to first base, where Josh Naylor fielded it and trotted to the bag for the final out of the game.

The Tigers had plenty of chances in between. In some ways, they were close; Kerry Carpenter’s eighth-inning drive to left field hit just inches below the top of Progressive Field’s 19-foot high wall. It would’ve been a home run in 21 other Major League stadiums, including Comerica Park.

“We're six inches away from a tie ballgame right there,” Greene said.

In this case, it was a one-out double and one more runner in scoring position, which was the Tigers’ downfall for the night.

The Tigers went 1-for-9 with runners in such situations. The lone hit actually followed that double, but Spencer Torkelson’s slow chopper to third didn’t allow Carpenter to advance.

“We did give ourselves a lot of opportunities,” manager A.J. Hinch said, “and we just didn’t get the big hit.”

It was that kind of night for the Tigers, whose four-game losing streak is their longest since late last August. It has also been that kind of season for Detroit’s offense, which has scored seven runs during the losing streak and hasn’t led at the end of an inning since the Yankees’ two-run ninth last Friday to send them to a walk-off defeat.

The Tigers continue to work with slim margins, trying to ride the strength of their starting pitching and turn just enough offense into a victory. It almost worked Monday behind Jack Flaherty against one of the stingiest lineups in baseball to strike out, just as it almost worked last Friday behind Reese Olson against a New York lineup trying to hit the ball into the seats at Yankee Stadium.

But those close margins that were working in the Tigers’ favor during their early run of one-run victories are now turning against them. Detroit has lost its last three one-run games to fall to 7-7 in such close contests for the season. Their last two have come with a twist of irony: The power-hitting Yankees put together their two-run ninth last Friday on small ball, including an Alex Verdugo bunt single.

The pesky Guardians pulled ahead on a sixth-inning solo homer down the right-field line from Tiger nemesis José Ramírez, the one pitch Flaherty said he wished he could take back.

“Our job is go out and continue to make pitches and continue to execute until A.J. says 'that's it.' That’s what each of our jobs is,” said Flaherty, who fanned six Guardians over as many innings to move into a tie with Seattle’s Luis Castillo for the AL lead in strikeouts, but remains winless as a Tiger. “That's all you can do, continue to go out and make pitches and give us a chance to win.”

To convert those chances, they’ll need more hitters to heat up behind Greene atop the order. Carpenter’s near-miss extended his streak to 12 games without an RBI, but marked his first extra-base hit since April 22. He also reached on a catcher’s interference call leading off the sixth inning.

Torkelson’s hit was his third in two games, and improved him to 12-for-42 with runners in scoring position. Colt Keith entered Monday in a 2-for-34 stretch before his second-inning single. Wenceel Pérez, who missed Sunday’s series finale in New York with a bout of food poisoning, stepped off the bench for a pinch-hit walk Monday but struck out with Carpenter on third in the eighth. Javier Báez ended an 0-for-11 start to May with a fifth-inning single.

“I mean, it's baseball, really,” Greene said. “Some things don't go our way. Like I said, we were six inches away from a tie ballgame. It is what it is.”