Norris deserves better fate against O's

BALTIMORE -- The Tigers embarked on this road trip emphasizing the need to stick together and to win and lose as a team rather than individuals. Four games and three losses later, they’re trying to hold to that.

“We’re all pulling the rope in the same direction, and pulling for each other,” catcher Grayson Greiner said after Monday’s 5-3 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards.

Games like Monday don’t make it easy, though.

“We gave them runs again; routine plays,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You just can’t do that. We’ve said it over and over. You’ve just got to catch the ball and get the outs you’re supposed to get. Just get one out. We didn’t get any on one big play, and that was the margin of how we lost. And we had some chances to get some hits, too.”

• Box score

Though Daniel Norris paid for a first-inning slider over the plate that Renato Nunez hit off the left-field foul pole for a two-run home run, his fate Monday was tied to Ronny Rodríguez's errant throw into right field on what looked like a potential double-play ball. That scored one run and set up another on a sacrifice fly for two unearned runs in a two-run game.

On a day when the Tigers faced an O’s squad that had to travel back from Colorado on Sunday night for a Monday matinee, it was Detroit that looked like the more challenged team after a shorter trip in from New York. From the moment Orioles leadoff man Hanser Alberto dropped a first-inning bunt toward third base for a single and Norris committed a throwing error, the O’s seemed ready.

“You don’t expect it, for sure,” Greiner said. “Dino’s a really good athlete trying to make a play. The ball just got away from him.”

Norris was an out away from pitching through it, but left a slider over the plate to Nunez.

“The first couple innings, it felt like the game started at 9 a.m.,” Norris said, “like sometimes your body feels a little lethargic and heavy. I just turned a corner there in the third and fourth, felt like I got better as it went on.”

The bunt set a tone for the Orioles that eventually lifted them through the afternoon despite a rally at the end.

“Get a few hours of sleep and come here, and Bert lays a drag bunt down to lead off the game with a single,” O’s manager Brandon Hyde said. “Then Nuney goes deep. We have high-character guys who just want to play ... in the big leagues and want to stay here, to do everything they can to stay here."

Rodriguez’s error looked like a tentative toss, bouncing the ball in the dirt and past second baseman Josh Harrison. However, Gardenhire said it was more of a rushed toss that wasn’t clean, an overly ambitious attempt at a double-play.

“I don’t think he had a grip on it,” Gardenhire said. “I think he caught it and was trying to be a little too quick, wanted to probably try to get two [outs] before you get one. Obviously, he didn’t have a grip on the ball, because he threw it straight down into the ground.”

An inning later, Alberto took advantage of the Tigers' defense again, taking second base on a ground ball through the middle after Harrison’s diving attempt left him unable to cover the bag. Rodriguez froze at short, seemingly caught between covering second and trying to nab Stevie Wilkerson going from first to third.

“Ronny, if he was watching, maybe goes to the bag. The guy was going to make it to third base,” Gardenhire said. "But [Harrison] dove for it, and he probably should’ve gotten back to the bag, too. And [first baseman Niko Goodrum] could’ve gotten to the bag. So take your pick.”

Norris stranded those runners to keep the game close. He survived for 5 2/3 innings with two earned runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts. His changeup and slider, which improved as the game went on, combined for nine swinging strikes against an aggressive O’s lineup. It wasn’t his best outing, but it should’ve been good enough.

“When that stuff happens, we relish those opportunities. That’s a chance to pick your teammate up and can really be a momentum-changer,” Norris said.

Rodriguez, a utility infielder by trade forced into regular action at short by Jordy Mercer’s recurring right quad strain, has four errors in 20 games at the position. He takes his defense seriously, and was distraught after a bobble at second base on a potential game-ending double-play preceded a Marlins comeback last week at Comerica Park. With Mercer on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo and expected back no later than next week, the Tigers could face a roster crunch. For now, however, they’re in a defensive jam at short.

“We’ve tried to try to ad-lib with it,” Gardenhire said before the game. “We got offense out of the position. Ronny had a really good stretch, and hopefully, he’ll find his swing again. But still, we need that consistency [with Mercer].”

The Tigers kept the game close with help from two early Brandon Dixon runs off O’s spot starter Gabriel Ynoa. Once Nick Castellanos doubled in Stewart in the fifth off Dan Straily, the Tigers had the tying run in scoring position with nobody out. But Castellanos wandered too far off second base trying to fake a tag-up on Miguel Cabrera’s fly out to right, leaving him in a rundown when O’s rookie shortstop Richie Martin cut off Wilkerson’s throw in.

Despite all that, the Tigers still had the tying run in scoring position in the ninth with a double steal from Harrison and pinch-runner Gordon Beckham. But Shawn Armstrong retired Christin Stewart, and the Tigers lost for the 12th time in 13 games.