CLEVELAND — How do you strike out the side and still end up allowing six runs to score?
Welcome to Tigers baseball, 2022.
Up 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth, lefty reliever Andrew Chafin struck out Owen Miller, Andres Gimenez and Luke Maile. But the third strike to Maile scooted by catcher Eric Haase and Maile was able to reach safely.
When the dust settled on the inning, the Guardians sent 11 batters to the plate, produced six hits and six runs and beat the Tigers, 8-4, in the finale of this four-game series at Progressive Field.
After Myles Straw kept the inning alive with a single, Steven Kwan blooped a ground-rule double down the right-field line. That scored one run and had the ball not bounced into the stands, the game would've been tied right there.
With closer Gregory Soto unavailable, manager AJ Hinch summoned right-hander Alex Lange. A hit parade ensued: Rosario, swinging bunt, infield single. Jose Ramirez bloop double down the left-field line. Oscar Gonzalez, double off the wall in left. Owen Miller, single.
Incredible. All after Chafin had struck out the side. The ever-elusive fourth out.
Up until that wild pitch, the Tigers were in control.
Lefty Daniel Norris, in his second start since being selected from Triple-A Toledo, where he transitioned back to a starting role after three seasons pitching in relief, soldiered through five labor-intensive innings.
But when he shook manager Hinch’s hand and accepted the atta-boys from his teammates, he left a 4-1 lead and in line for his first win as a starting pitcher since July 31, 2019.
Norris allowed just four hits, but he kept himself in trouble with a pair of walks and three hit batsmen. All three were hit in the foot with breaking pitches.
He escaped a bases-loaded, one-out mess in the second inning, getting a huge assist from shortstop Javier Baez. Playing even with the bag, Baez fielded a multi-hop ground ball by Straw and made the bold decision to throw home.
His strong throw got the force out by a half-step.
Norris finished the inning getting the pesky Kwan to ground out to first. Kwan, in the last seven games against the Tigers over these last couple of weeks, was 12 for 28.
In the third inning, Norris lost an epic, 11-pitch battle with Ramirez. He had struck him out in three pitches in the first inning. This time, Ramirez fouled off six straight pitches with two strikes. The 11th pitch, on a 3-2 count, plunked Ramirez.
Norris’ next pitch, to Gonzalez, was rifled into the right-center-field gap, scoring Ramirez.
In the fourth, Norris struck out Rosario with two on and two out.
He mixed all five of his pitches but relied heavily on his four-seam fastball and sweeping slider. Those two pitches accounted for 50 of his 89 pitches and the nine that were put in play weren’t hit hard — average exit velocity of 79 mph.
What happens next with Norris remains to be seen. Hinch said he would deploy a four-man rotation through the rest of the month and Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to return to the rotation Sunday. There is a chance Norris will be moved back to the bullpen.
It seemed like a mismatch on paper — Guardians’ right-hander Cal Quantrill, who came in having pitched 13 straight scoreless innings against two offensive powerhouses (Houston and Toronto), versus a Tigers offense that barely averages three runs a game.
But you know what they say about games being played on paper. They aren’t.
Quantrill set down the first nine hitters, but the Tigers started chipping away the second time through the order, helped by a two-batter command lapse.
Riley Greene, who hadn’t walked in 51 plate appearances, and Victor Reyes (who has a puny 3.5% walk rate), drew walks to start the fourth and both scored. Kerry Carpenter plated Greene with a sacrifice fly to left and Haase’s infield single scored Reyes.
Reyes ripped a two-out single in the fifth after Akil Baddoo singled and stole second.
Then in the sixth, Willi Castro, just inserted into the game, hit a 93-mph sinker from Quantrill 395 feet over the wall in right center.
Castro had entered in the bottom of the fifth, replacing Harold Castro who left with a sore left thumb.
