KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Another night, another dramatic, draining, dumbfounding and borderline divine win.
In Monday’s 7-6 Detroit Tigers victory against the Kansas City Royals, there was a rookie second baseman, hitting a towering blast to rejuvenate his team’s hopes. There was another rookie, this one an unheralded switch hitter fresh off an oblique injury, pinch hitting from his weaker side and delivering the game’s biggest knock. There was the bullpen’s emerging force, a 27th-round draft pick who just made back-to-back starts as an opener now throwing the hardest pitch of his life to help escape a daunting jam.
After the runs scored and the dugout roared and the celebrations ensued, the team’s maestro manager stood in the office and shook his head.
“So many twists and turns in that game,” A.J. Hinch joked. “Please don’t ask me to explain all of those.”
During the third inning, the Tigers found themselves in a 4-0 hole after Reese Olson — in his first start back from the injured list — hung a curveball that fed into the monster that is Bobby Witt Jr. Witt’s grand slam gave the Royals an advantage, the kind light-hitting teams such as the Tigers aren’t supposed to be able to surmount, the kind good teams with good pitchers such as Seth Lugo are not supposed to relent.
Instead, the Detroit lineup chipped away. Parker Meadows used his blessed legs to score on a single from Matt Vierling, a do-it-all player who was somehow overshadowed by all the other thrills of the evening. Then, with Vierling on base, second baseman Colt Keith sat fastball after two previous dismal at-bats against Lugo. Instead, he got a changeup in the zone, stayed back and connected. His ball climbed and traveled 406 feet to make it a 4-3 game in the fifth.
“I don’t think anybody thought we were out of it,” Keith said later. “Just the way we’ve been swinging the bats, we’ve been able to get runs across to get jobs done.”
In the sixth came perhaps the game’s biggest inflection point. Two Tigers reached with singles. With the left-handed Kerry Carpenter due up against left-handed pitcher Sam Long, Hinch played the best card remaining on his bench. Switch hitter Wenceel Pérez presented a dilemma for Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro. Kansas City had a right-hander warming, but Pérez boasts more power from the left side. Long handles right-handed batters well, and Pérez’s .663 OPS as a right-handed hitter did not exactly instill fear.
Still, Hinch felt he held the power here, forcing Quatraro to choose between two matchups. Pérez had pinch hit as a righty only three times all season, going 0-for-2 with a walk. He had also just missed a month with an oblique injury and was only 1-for-9 in four games since his return. Pérez strode to the plate not knowing which side he would hit from. Seconds later he was racing around first base after punching a double down the left-field line. Both runners scored. The game was tied.
“Just one of the maybe 20 huge at-bats we had this game,” Keith said.
Then it was Vierling with more quiet execution, singling Pérez home to take the lead.
If any player embodies the spirit of this out-of-nowhere Tigers playoff chase, you could argue it is Pérez. The 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic spent six-plus seasons in the minor leagues. Entering spring training, he was not projected to be on the team’s roster. He developed what you could call a case of yips making throws from second base and converted to the outfield. By midsummer, he was hitting in the middle of Detroit’s order. After the biggest hit of his young career, he spent the postgame moments munching on his food and scrolling on his phone like it was any other evening.
“When he comes back (from the IL), everything on our team has changed,” Hinch said. “He didn’t change. He hasn’t missed a beat. … He’s gonna be the same tomorrow. He’ll probably be coming off the bench, and he’ll be prepared for anything, and I know he’ll be calm in the moment.”
Just as the Tigers mounted their comeback, the division rival Minnesota Twins blew a game against the Cleveland Guardians. Tigers players could not help but glance at the out-of-town scoreboard as the Guardians stranded the bases loaded late in the game, then came back to win anyway.
“I’m guilty of (looking) at least like 50 times,” Keith said.
The news meant the Tigers would go to a mere 1 1/2 games behind Minnesota — 2 1/2 if you count the Twins’ tiebreaker advantage — in the playoff hunt.
But before the Tigers could celebrate, there was more work to be done, more unknown and unsung bullpen heroes who had to deliver. Sean Guenther, Brenan Hanifee and Will Vest got the Tigers through the seventh. In the eighth, right-hander Beau Brieske, who only two days earlier became the first Tiger since 1929 to start consecutive games on two consecutive days as part of Detroit’s oddball pitching construction, entered but immediately surrendered a single and a walk. Pitching coach Chris Fetter visited the mound. Then Brieske got MJ Melendez into a two-strike count. Brieske’s 1-2 pitch was a 99.5 mph fastball — nearly a full mile per hour faster than his previous career high — that zoomed past Melendez’s bat.
“Nut up or shut up,” Brieske said later, adrenaline still flowing. “I tried to throw it as hard as I could, that’s for sure.”
Brieske got ensuing batter Maikel García to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, one Spencer Torkelson saved by corralling a bounced throw to first. The Tigers retreated off the field but momentarily feared the play could be reviewed. The verdict turned out to be final, and the whole dugout exploded with raucous cheers.
With two outs in the ninth inning of a one-run game — after the Tigers blew a chance to add an insurance run when Torkelson fell rounding third, the consequence of a late stop-and-point rather than a timely stop sign from third-base coach Joey Cora — Jason Foley struck out Tommy Pham on a devilish full-count sinker. That left the powerful Witt on deck, and it marked the Tigers’ latest victory in a run that increasingly feels littered with hints of destiny.
“That was one of the best games we’ve played all year as a team,” Keith said. “Coming back like that as a team, that was awesome. It took pitching, it took hitting. That was really fun.”
For a moment, let’s be rational. There are 11 games to play. Much more required. A litany of crunching decisions and crucial moments still to come.
But the Tigers just tied last season’s team for the franchise’s most wins (78) since 2016.
Forgive anyone who has forgotten. Detroit, this is what meaningful baseball looks like.
(Top photo: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
