A blowout isn’t often the type of defeat that remains with a squad. It’s the one in which everything appeared to be going well for six innings, your starter pitched 71 pitches and allowed just one run, you scored first and then again, and you had a two-run lead with six outs remaining. That’s the kind of loss Detroit experienced at Kauffman Stadium on May 8, and the sequence of events that led to the collapse—one misplayed ball in right field, one reliever who failed to record an out—tends to repeat itself in a dugout long after the last out.
Keider Montero had been almost flawless. Three hits, four strikeouts, one earned run, and 71 pitches in six innings. The Tigers had established a 3-1 lead behind him that seemed doable, and he overcame some difficulties in the sixth. In the sixth inning, Wenceel Pérez made a direct contribution by hitting a two-out RBI double off Kris Bubic, a brilliant at-bat in a crucial moment. Against Nick Mears, Spencer Torkelson doubled for a 3-1 lead. The game was in Detroit’s favor. The seventh was handled flawlessly by Tyler Holton. The final six outs were available for acquisition.
In the eighth, Kyle Finnegan entered the game. The inning changed right away after Michael Massey led off with a double, which was already a warning sign. Finnegan did not record a single out while giving up three hits and a walk. Kyle Isbel’s ground ball, which went through the infield past diving first baseman Spencer Torkelson and hopped toward right field before slipping under Wenceel Pérez’s glove and rolling to the warning track, was the precise play that altered the course of the game.
Isbel pulled into third and Massey scored from second, turning what had been an RBI single into a two-base mistake. The next at-bat, Maikel Garcia singled home the tying run. Detroit’s two-run advantage vanished completely in just three batters—three hits, one error, and no outs.
After a walk to Bobby Witt Jr., Brant Hurter induced a double play and an inning-ending groundout to get the Tigers out of the eighth inning without any more damage. However, in hindsight, the escape seemed hollow because of the potential Detroit lost during their half of the inning. Zack Short’s bunt effort resulted into a pop-up in the top of the ninth, wasting a leadoff double that begs for a successful at-bat. With runners in scoring position, Detroit was 2-for-11 that evening. From the very first pitch to the very last, the tone of the game was one of a team leaving things on the table.
In the ninth inning, Hurter, Detroit’s most dependable weapon against left-handed hitters, lost. After Nick Loftin came in as a substitute bat and doubled with two outs, Isbel—the same outfielder whose ball had bounced off Pérez’s glove three innings prior—sliced an opposite-field single past third baseman Kevin McGonigle’s diving glove. Loftin scored with ease.
Isbel, who had also robbed Pérez of an extra-base hit earlier in the game with a diving backhand catch in left-center and made an over-the-shoulder grab of Torkelson’s deep fly just before the warning track, had put on one of the more comprehensive individual performances of the early season. The Royals had walked off for the third time this season. It was the first walk-off hit of his career. He deserved it.
It was Detroit’s fourth straight defeat, and this one was more painful because the foundation of a strong start was torn apart in just one inning. It’s still unclear how much Finnegan’s continuous deployment in high-stakes scenarios is due to a lack of better options vs sincere faith in him. This season, the Tigers’ bullpen has been an issue at different times, and Friday night provided a precise example of what that looks like when it appears at the wrong time. There’s a sense that the Tigers knew exactly what it meant when the ball rolled under Pérez’s glove in the eighth, and they were powerless to prevent it from being significant.
