Tigers hit double digits, but bullpen is pressed

CHICAGO -- This was the scenario Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire wanted.

His offense had finally broken out on Friday night, scoring double digits in runs for the first time this season. He had the big lead he needed to rest a bullpen that had been taxed by four games over three nights in Boston. He had a decent enough outing from Daniel Norris to qualify the young starter for another win. All Gardenhire needed, with a six-run lead entering the bottom of the sixth, was two innings of middle relief to carry the lead to his late-inning guys.

As Gardenhire sat in his office following the 12-11 loss to the White Sox, his ideal scenario was something altogether different.

“We need a snowstorm,” the veteran skipper said.

If weather forecasts are right, the Tigers will most likely get it, at least a little snowfall. A winter storm on the final weekend of April won’t get Friday’s game back, but it’ll likely get Gardenhire a day to rest his relievers and reset his bullpen. It’ll be one freak occurrence to counter the one he saw in the series opener at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Tigers held a seven-run lead at one point and it wasn’t enough. As Tim Anderson’s ninth-inning walk-off drive off Joe Jimenez cleared the left-field fence, it took the lift from an awakened Detroit offense with it.

What looked like a statement first inning with back-to-back home runs from Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera turned out to be simply an opening act. The teams combined for nine home runs -- if you don’t count Jose Abreu’s seventh-inning homer that became a single when he passed Anderson on the basepaths -- as part of 36 hits.

But while Anderson’s walk-off homer finished it, the game really turned in the sixth. Though Gardenhire said he had four relievers unavailable due to workload, he had a six-run lead to hand to Zac Reininger, just recalled from Triple-A Toledo to provide a fresh arm in the bullpen.

Gardenhire was hoping to get six outs from Reininger, then hand the ball to Jimenez for the eighth. He got six batters from Reininger, but five reached base -- two home runs, two doubles and a single. All five eventually scored.

The instinct with a big lead is to throw strikes and not give away baserunners on walks. Reininger yielded a Jose Rondon home run on an 0-2 pitch to lead off the inning and he saw the inning snowball from there.

“I was just missing my spots, not getting ahead, not thinking things through and throwing pitches I shouldn’t have thrown,” Reininger said.

At that point, the bullpen scenario Gardenhire envisioned was gone. By the time the inning ended, the White Sox had the bases loaded in a one-run game. Drew VerHagen had a 3-0 count, a pitch away from walking in the potential tying run, before getting a line-out double play to escape. Chicago pulled ahead an inning later off Rule 5 Draft pick Reed Garrett, lost the lead the next inning, then won it later.

“These guys can hit,” Gardenhire said. “The ball was flying. It turned into a circus game and they won it.”

By the time Ronny Rodriguez hit an eighth-inning homer to tie it at 11, the Tigers had more runs on Friday than they had scored in their first six games of the season combined. But the young bullpen that carried them through that early-season stretch was barely recognizable.

Not until the bottom of the eighth did either side have a 1-2-3 inning. That came courtesy of Daniel Stumpf and Jimenez, who combined to retire six consecutive batters before Anderson stepped to the plate with two out in the ninth and jumped on a first-pitch slider from Jimenez.

Not since June 1, 2007, had the Tigers scored 11 runs in a game and lost. Not since June 13, 2016, had they blown a seven-run lead in a loss. Not since a Twins-A’s game on July 20, 2009, had two teams scored 11 runs with 15 hits and four homers in a game.

Not since who knows when has a manager hoped for a winter blast at the end of April.

“I hope that snowstorm hits tomorrow,” Gardenhire said. “I hope it snows 18 inches. We really need the break.”