DETROIT — They were booing Javier Báez when he took a called third strike in the first inning. They booed louder when he chased a pitch way outside the zone for another strikeout in the fifth.
But they were on their feet cheering wildly in the eighth inning after Báez won an incredible 12-pitch battle with reliever John Brebbia. His line-drive double to the wall in left field plated two runs in a three-run rally that tied the score 6-6.
And the crowd of 18,344, those who stayed, were rewarded with bonus baseball for the second straight day — and a second straight 11th-inning walk-off winner.
Miguel Cabrera, pinch-hitting, bounced a ground ball up the middle to score the free runner Spencer Torkelson and was mobbed on the infield by teammates as the Tigers beat the Giants, 7-6, their third straight win and second in 11 innings.
Báez, who also singled in the sixth, fell into an 0-2 hole against Brebbia, a slider specialist, the kind that has given Báez fits over his career. But he dug in. He fouled off six pitches and took a couple of close pitches on the outer edge. Finally, on the 12th pitch, Brebbia left a slider over the inside part of the plate and Báez smoked it directly over the head of left fielder Blake Sabol.
Nick Maton and Riley Greene both scored. Báez went to third on a long fly ball by Kerry Carpenter and scored on a single by Spencer Torkelson.
From a five-run deficit to a tie score.
The day started with Michael Lorenzen’s Tigers debut. It didn't go well. The Giants scored two runs in each of the first three innings.
He soldiered through four innings, mixing six pitches and inducing, for the most part, mild contact (85.6 mph average exit velocity on 14 balls in play). He struck out six.
But his command inside the strike zone was spotty. He left too many balls in the middle of the plate, like a sweeper that Sabol sent into the seats in right center in the second inning. Like the 2-2 change-up down and in that third baseman J.D. Davis hit into the visitor’s bullpen in the third inning — another two-run shot.
Lorenzen, whom the Tigers signed for $8.5 million this offseason, ended his day punching out Mike Yastrzemski and Davis, but it took him 79 pitches to get through the fourth.
The Tigers hitters spent the day digging out of that early hole against Giants starter Anthony DeSclafani, a task made possible by some brilliant bullpen work.
Carpenter hit a laser shot into the grass atop the wall in right field to get one run back. It was his second homer in three games.
They got two more in the fifth and left two more on the bases. Zach McKinstry, who had made a sterling defensive play at third base in the top of the fifth, doubled into the right-field corner scoring Akil Baddoo from first.
Brandon Crawford, the Giants’ four-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop, then made back-to-back errors on balls hit by Eric Haase and Matt Vierling. But the Tigers didn’t take full advantage of that shocking development.
McKinstry scored but neither Nick Maton or Riley Greene could cash in on the miscues.
The last time Crawford made back-to-back errors in a game was July 7, 2014. Those were throwing errors.
Lefty Tyler Holton was called up from Toledo earlier in the day to replace Garrett Hill. His debut went vastly better than Lorenzen's. He kept the Tigers in the fight with three scoreless innings.
Crisscrossing the plate with a well-located mix of cutters, change-ups and sinkers, Holton allowed one single and got five ground ball outs.
Right-hander Trey Wingenter, bouncing back from a nightmarish ninth inning in Toronto earlier in the week, pitched a clean eighth. Alex Lange followed with a scoreless ninth and Jason Foley struck out two and stranded the free runner in the 10th.
