DETROIT -- Javier Báez made a running catch at the left-field warning track to deny the Dodgers a go-ahead run in the ninth, then hit a leadoff double to set up Kevin McGonigle’s walk-off single, leading the Tigers to a 2-1 win over the Dodgers on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.
Báez, who has become a frequent left fielder since Riley Greene’s hamstring injury and Max Clark became Detroit’s everyday center fielder, ranged 112 feet to run down Teoscar Hernández’s drive to the warning track in left-center, calling off Clark to make a basket catch on a ball that would’ve been a home run in 11 Major League parks, according to Statcast.
With the game still tied, Báez led off the bottom of the inning and hit a line drive into left off Dodgers lefty Jack Dreyer. Clark bunted him over to third before Hao-Yu Lee’s walk loaded the bases for McGonigle, who ended an 0-for-16 slump with a drive to deep left-center. The ball bounced over the fence and would’ve been a ground-rule double, but it officially counts as a single.
The Tigers took the early lead on Gleyber Torres’ third-inning ground-rule double that scored Báez, but they missed a chance at a bigger inning when L.A. starter Blake Snell struck out Dillon Dingler and Eduardo Valencia swinging at 97 mph fastballs to strand the bases loaded.
Those missed opportunities came back to haunt Detroit when Freddie Freeman’s RBI single off Keider Montero tied it in the sixth, but Tyler Holton escaped a bases-loaded jam three batters later with a Tommy Edman double play.