CLEVELAND — The baseball hasn’t much bounced the Tigers’ way this season. But it did Tuesday in their 4-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians.
Guardians manager Terry Francona and center fielder Myles Straw were ejected in a wild bottom of the ninth.
Down 4-3, rookie Tyler Freeman led off the bottom of the ninth with a ringing double to left field off closer Gregory Soto. He was bunted to third by Austin Hedges. Soto struck out Straw on a foul tip that catcher Tucker Barnhart caught.
The initial call by home plate ump Lance Barksdale was foul ball. The Tigers asked for a conference and the call was overturned. Replays showed Barnhart caught the foul tip.
Straw had to be restrained from going after third base ump Alan Porter.
They got a break in the first, too.
With two outs, Javier Báez drew a walk, something he does only 4% of the time, and stole second (one of his two steals in the game). Harold Castro hit a ground ball up the middle that second baseman Andres Gimenez was poised to field and convert the final out of the inning.
But the ball caromed off the base. Báez slowed up rounding third and looked back to see where the ball was, even though third base coach Ramon Santiago was waving him in. Shortstop Freeman alertly pounced on the carom and made a strong throw to the plate.
Báez was called out, but manager AJ Hinch alertly asked for a video review, challenging the home plate collision rule. Indeed, catcher Hedges was in the running lane blocking Báez’s path to the plate.
The call was overturned and the Tigers ended up scoring three runs in the inning, two on the second home run in two days by rookie Kerry Carpenter.
Guardians starter Zach Plesac got ahead of him 1-2, but Carpenter smartly laid off a changeup that faded just out of the strike zone. The next pitch was a 91-mph four-seam fastball and Carpenter put a charge into it, sending it 429 feet over the wall in right-center — almost exactly where he hit his first big-league homer on Monday.
Carpenter added a single and a walk in the game, going on a 6-for-8 spree after starting his big league career 0 for 10.
Castro, who had three hits, doubled in the Tigers’ fourth run in the third.
Rookie right-hander Garrett Hill made that lead stand, doggedly navigating a right-handed heavy Guardians lineup through six innings.
Right-handed hitters, atypically for right-handed pitchers, have given Hill more problems than lefties in his seven starts this season, slashing .294/.348/.506 against him. Lefties were hitting just .158 against him with a .316 slug.
“At his call-up, his question would’ve been how would he handle opposite-handed hitters,” Hinch said. “We felt like he was always going to have that breaking ball for righties. His ball cuts. He has the elevated fastball, which right on right is tough.
“But what’s happened is the direct opposite. He’s handles the lefties but he’s been unable to control damage against lefties.”
Cleveland, as you’d expect, loaded up with six right-handed hitters.
“The challenge for him is to find the breaking ball that works against right-handed hitters,” Hinch said.
He seemed to find it. After giving up a run on three hits in the first inning, he settled in and allowed only one more hit with two walks through six innings.
The six right-handed hitters in the Guardians’ lineup went 2 for 15.
Hill threw predominantly four-seam fastballs (46 of them between 88 and 93 mph). But it was the slider that seemed to help neutralize the righties. Of the 18 he threw, the Guardians whiffed on five of the eight they swung at and took three for called strikes.
An error by Castro at first base, he missed a throw from Báez, led to an unearned run for the Guardians against reliever Jason Foley in the seventh.
But that one miscue was not representative of the defense the Tigers played. Victor Reyes in right and Riley Greene in center both ran down balls to the wall. Báez quelled a potential rally in the third inning with a brilliant backhand play in the hole, taking a hit away from Amed Rosario.
The seventh inning ended with textbook execution between Barnhart and Báez, nabbing speedy Steven Kwan trying to steal second — perfect throw and fast tag.
Things got a little hairy in the bottom of the eighth. Joe Jimenez was tasked with getting through the heart of the Guardians order and protect a two-run lead. Rosario started the inning hitting a 1-2 fastball into the gap in left-center for a triple.
He scored on a single by Jose Ramirez. But Jimenez cut it off there, getting the next three hitters, including the dangerous Josh Naylor for the final out.
The Tigers won back-to-back games for the first time since July 7-8.
