PITTSBURGH – They hadn’t won a one-run game in weeks and if we’re ranking the reasons the Detroit Tigers are still looking up in the American League Central, their 12-21 record in one-run games is at the top.
Blame inconsistent offense. Injuries. Mostly, blame the bullpen. As closer Kenley Jansen said right after the trade deadline:
He hadn’t been good enough.
Nor, frankly, had his fellow arms in the 'pen.
They weren’t again Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the rubber match at PNC Park against the Pirates, where Jansen gave up a game-tying home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth and one batter later gave up the game-winning home run, as Pittsburgh came back from a 3-1 hole to win 4-3.
At the plateHao-Yu Lee got it going in the third with a single to right and then continued his sneaky-good baserunning by taking third when Colt Keith singled to left. That allowed Lee to score on a Kevin McGonigle sacrifice to left.
The Tigers are one of the best baserunning teams in the Majors, but it got them in the fifth when Gleyber Torres tried scoring from first off a double from McGonigle. It appeared that he held up as he rounded third, but he did not.
McGonigle’s double did drive in Lee, though, and Max Clark scored earlier in the inning on Torres single. Clark began the fifth with a double of his own.
That mini burst chased Paul Skenes, who has struggled this season after a dominant effort a year ago.
On the moundJobe struggled with command at times but located better than he had in his start against the Chicago White Sox last week, only his second since returning from a near 14-month recovery after Tommy John surgery.
The 24-year-old threw a season-high 86 pitches, 53 of them for strikes. He walked three, he struck out three, and he got groundouts when he needed them, like in the first inning, when Bryan Reynolds hit a broken-bat one hopper to Torres with a runner on first and one out.
It looked like a double-play ball until it spun and darted, like a knuckleball, at the last minute, just out of the way of Torres’ glove. It was ruled a single. It should’ve been ruled bad luck.
Instead of ending the inning, the young pitcher gathered himself and struck out the next hitter. Then Oneil Cruz singled and drove in a run to make it 1-0.
That was all Jobe allowed, though, as he held it down the next four innings, mixing his curve and slider with that sizzling fastball. He struck out the last hitter he faced, Esmerlyn Valdez, on a 99-mph heater.
Tyler Holton finished the sixth, Jacob Waguespack got two outs in the seventh but gave up a solo home run. Drew Sommers cleaned up the seventh. Finnegan managed his way through the eighth.
Up nextThe Royals, in Kansas City, where the Tigers will try to win the series against the team that that split a four-game series at Comerica Park right before the trade deadline. That 2-2 result partially helped convince the team’s president of baseball operations, Scott Harris, to sell, as he eventually shipped Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize for prospects.
Kansas City is still the middling team they were a few weeks ago and the Tigers would do well to find a way to win the series this time as they jockey for a postseason spot down the stretch.
Their starters should be Troy Melton, Drew Anderson and Framber Valdez.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers choke a late lead again in crushing walk-off loss to Pirates
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