DETROIT — He knew he was going to get booed. He was probably booing himself. But he also knew he had to do what he did.
Right-hander Matt Manning walked Cavan Biggio with two outs in the sixth inning. In just his third start after missing more than two months with a broken bone in his foot, he was at 91 pitches and the Tigers were clinging to a two-run lead.
Manager AJ Hinch bolted out of the dugout to make a pitching change.
Most of the 30,621 fans at Comerica Park Saturday booed. Manning hadn’t allowed a hit. He'd walked three and hit one, but he hadn’t allowed a hit and Hinch was interrupting a history-making bid.
History could wait. With the rash of pitcher injuries the Tigers have endured the last two years — Manning missed a chunk of time last season, too — and given that Hinch was still kicking himself a little bit for staying with Alex Faedo a tick too long Friday night and the fact he had the back end of his bullpen rested and ready — the move, as unpopular as it might have been, was a no-brainer.
The move was vindicated. Jason Foley got the final out of the seventh, pitched a clean and eighth and Alex Lange plowed through the top of the Toronto batting order in the ninth — Bo Bichette, Brandon Belt and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. — and the Tigers pitched a combined no-hitter and beat the Blue Jays, 2-0.
The last Tigers' no-hitter was May 19, 2021, thrown by Spencer Turnbull. Saturday's was the first combined no-hitter in the team's history.
The start of the game was delayed an hour and 22 minutes by steady rainfall. And it was still raining hard when Manning took the mound to start the game at 2:32 p.m. And he struggled mightily with the wet mound, the slippery ball, his grip, everything.
He hit Bichette with his fourth pitch of the game, grazing his batting helmet. He then walked Belt on four pitches. Somehow he managed to wriggle out of that mess, punching out Biggio to end the inning.
Gradually the skies cleared and the sun came out and with it came some of the best command Manning has showed in his young career. He mixed his three pitches perfectly, throwing 34 four-seamers, 30 sliders and 27 curveballs.
With catcher Eric Haase effectively sequencing the three pitches, Manning got 32 called strikes — 10 with the four-seamer and eight with his curveball.
He ended up with five strikeouts.
He also got some terrific defensive plays. Kerry Carpenter made a sliding catch in foul ground in right field. Third baseman Zach McKinstry took a base hit away from Matt Chapman with a diving play going to his left. Shortstop Javier Báez ran some 150 feet into left field to catch a fly ball hit by Bichette.
It was still raining pretty hard when Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman took the mound in the bottom of the first. Like Manning, he had trouble commanding his pitches.
Riley Greene, in his first game since he injured his left leg May 30, singled and scored from first on a double to left-center by Spencer Torkelson. Kerry Carpenter followed with an RBI triple, a ball that traveled 407 feet and hit off the top of the wall in right-center field.
Single, double, triple and the Tigers had all the runs they needed.
