TORONTO — You better bring your hitting shoes when you come up here to play the bashing Blue Jays. On most nights, anything less than five runs is going to get you beat.
The Tigers didn't quite get there Thursday, try as they might, losing the first of a four-game series against the Blue Jays, 5-3 at Rogers Centre.
Down 4-2 in the eighth inning, they loaded the bases with no outs against right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia. Victor Reyes, who delivered the game-winning hit in the ninth on Wednesday, led off with a double.
He inexplicably stayed at second when a bloop by Robbie Grossman fell in shallow left after shortstop Bo Bichette and left fielder Teoscar Hernandez collided. After Javier Báez walked on four pitches to load the bases, Reyes also stayed put on a fly ball to medium depth right field by Miguel Cabrera.
He chose not to test George Springer, who possesses one of the best arms in baseball.
Eric Haase was next and, after a gritty nine-pitch fight, fouling off four 2-2 pitches, sent a fly ball to the track in right, deep enough for Reyes to trot home.
That was the end of it. Toronto added an unearned run off Alex Lange in the bottom of the ninth (second unearned gifted by the Tigers on the night, eighth in the last three games) and Blue Jays closer Jason Romano got the final four outs.
The Tigers managed two hits in five innings against Blue Jays’ lefty starter Yusei Kikuchi – a double to start the game by Grossman and a bullet home run in the second by Willi Castro. Castro lashed a slider and hit it on a line 408 feet over the wall in center. The ball left his bat with an exit velocity of 103.8 mph.
The other run came on Jonathan Schoop’s seventh home run of the season, this one against lefty reliever Tim Mayza in the sixth.
Three runs and four hits is going to be insufficient against the Blue Jays most nights.
The Blue Jays average just under five runs a game (4.89) and nobody in the Major Leagues hits baseballs consistently harder than their 44.7% hard-hit rate. Coming into this four-game set with the Tigers, they led baseball with a .267 team batting average. They are second in slugging (.441), third in on-base percentage (.331) and third in OPS (.771).
Kudos to lefty starter Tyler Alexander and the Tigers’ bullpen, then, for at least keeping the Tigers’ in striking distance.
In what may be just a spot start for him, Alexander made one bad pitch in an otherwise strong four innings of work. He left 1-2 changeup over the middle of the plate to Matt Chapman and he launched it 357 feet into the left field seats.
The two-run homer broke a 1-1 tie.
Chapman homered again in the sixth off right-handed reliever Angel De Jesus.
Alexander had been working out of the bullpen since June 14. He hadn’t thrown more than 40 pitches in an outing since April. But, against an all-righty lineup, he soldiered through four innings, 69 pitches.
The Blue Jays scored an unearned run off him in the third, set up by an errant throw by shortstop Báez.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch gave rookie Riley Greene the night off against a lefty starter, giving Willi Castro a start in center. Still learning the nuances of playing the outfield, Castro’s athleticism continues to impress. He raced back to the wall in the fourth to take an extra base hit away from Danny Jansen.
Then in the seventh, he made a spectacular catch of a sailing line drive by Vlad Guerrero, Jr. The ball was struck with an exit velocity of 113 mph. The ball was hit over Castro’s head, but he took several quick steps back and to his right and made a perfectly-timed leap to snare the ball before tumbling onto the warning track.
