BALTIMORE -- The Tigers’ losing streak continues to grow. So could the injured list.
Jack Flaherty (0-6) allowed six runs (three earned) in 3 1/3 innings on a dreary Friday night, Brant Hurter became the latest Detroit hurler to pick up an injury and the slide grew to seven games in a 7-4 series-opening loss to the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
“Right now, I know nobody wants to hear it, but the way things are going, we don't get off the hook,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “The game doesn't really let you off the hook. We paid a price.”
The Orioles -- coming off a three-game slide -- pounded out 14 hits in the rain and mist against a Tigers team that has now lost 15 of its past 17.
The two biggest were Pete Alonso’s third-inning three-run shot and Jackson Holliday’s two-run drive an inning later to send Flaherty to his fourth defeat in as many starts and make it five out of his past seven without completing four frames.
Flaherty struck out seven but allowed eight hits, four for extra bases.
“There's a handful of fastballs that are probably over the middle of the plate that when I go back and look at it, [I] will see that,” Flaherty said.
Hurter exited in the fifth inning with back soreness following his offering to pinch-hitter Tyler O’Neill.
He appeared to suffer the injury while pushing off on his delivery, which resulted in a flyout to right field. He had entered an inning earlier with a runner aboard, working out of the fourth to keep Baltimore’s lead at 6-4.
“When I got out there, he just said his back. He just kept saying his back, so I took him out right away,” Hinch said. “So he'll get imaging and get looked at. I don't know the severity of it.”
Hurter has been one of Detroit’s more reliable relievers, pitching to a 2.84 ERA in 21 outings in his third MLB season. Now he could become the 10th pitcher added to the team’s injured list after right-hander Burch Smith (right shoulder inflammation) became the ninth before Friday’s game.
Both O’s homers carried a hint of misfortune.
Alonso’s came on a fastball well outside the strike zone in an inning prolonged by rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle’s bobble of a possible double-play ball. Holliday’s barely snuck over the wall by the foul pole in left, carrying a Statcast-projected 337 feet.
“At a certain point, you've got to make your own breaks,” Flaherty said. “No game's going to get handed to us.”
McGonigle homered on the game’s first pitch, becoming the first Tigers rookie to do so since Austin Jackson on Aug. 17, 2010, at Yankee Stadium. Hao-Yu Lee had two RBI hits, the latter a single to make it 4-3 Detroit in the top of the fourth before Flaherty lost the lead in the bottom half.
“I know what we have in this locker room,” McGonigle said. “We know what we've done in the last two years. So, yeah, it's tough right now, but it's a long season. And I think everyone has their heads on the right way, and they're ready to go out each and every day and play for each other. So, yeah, it's a little tough right now, but I know we'll come out of it.”