DETROIT — Myriad ingredients have contributed to the Pirates' strong September.
Their bullpen, led by Mason Montgomery, has been among the best in baseball. The offense has benefitted from having Konnor Griffin, Oneil Cruz and Ryan O'Hearn together again. Jared Jones, Paul Skenes and Bubba Chandler have mostly handled their business on start days.
The Pirates have also played clean baseball, entering Friday's game with the second-fewest errors in MLB this month (6).
While the Pirates threatened to make an improbable, late comeback, the other parts of their game didn't cooperate during an 8-7 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park, opening the final series of the season on a sour note.
Pirates pitchers walked seven, while their hitters struck out looking the same number of times. Griffin made the only official error, although two balls dropped that shouldn't. Jake Mangum took too big of a risk at the wrong time, and the Tigers scored a pair of runs on a strikeout that included a wild pitch.
It's not the type of baseball the Pirates have played while winning six of nine on their most recent homestand and 14 of 21 this month.
Now, the Pirates have two more chances to guarantee a winning season, and the next one — a bullpen game opposite Justin Verlander — presents some unique challenges.
To the Pirates’ credit, they made this one interesting, scoring five times in the eighth to close the gap.
Nick Gonzales poked an outside fastball to right field to score one. O’Hearn lined a mistake sinker to left for his second RBI of the game, trimming the Tigers’ lead to 8-4.
Then Rafael Flores Jr., who homered in both of his plate appearances the last time these clubs met, delivered another lengthy homer. After falling down in the count, 0-2, Flores got a fastball over the heart of the plate and blasted it 422 feet at 105.1 mph to center field.
The three-run shot created an 8-7 score, but the hole the Pirates created for themselves was simply too big.
After the Pirates scored twice in the second, Detroit scored twice in the second and four times in the third, capitalizing on mistakes that became even more painful after Pittsburgh’s late rally.
The start was the shortest of the season for Chandler, who lasted just 2 2/3 innings. Chandler walked four and gave up six earned runs, tying his season-high (April 23 at Texas).
It was the opposite of how he’s looked in the second half, when Chandler has gone 5-1 with a 3.63, walking 21 and striking out 53 in 57 innings.
In those starts, With the game tied at 2, the Tigers broke it open in the third by leveraging three walks from Chandler.
Detroit upped its lead to 4-2 when catcher Dillon Dingler lined a two-run single to left. It became a 6-2 game when Chandler struck out first baseman Spencer Torkelson. But the ball got away from Flores, allowing two more runs to score.
An inning prior, there were two men on when Torkelson hit a 101.5-mph liner to right that Mangum dove and nearly caught. Two runs scored when the ball trickled to the wall.
Oneil Cruz failed to catch a fly ball from Torkelson in the fifth. It was scored a double but could've easily been an error. Fortunately for the Pirates, nobody scored on the play.
The next inning, left fielder Riley Greene's pop fly to nearly the same spot dropped in for a hit before Griffin let a ground ball from Dingler trickle between his legs. A run scored on the play, allowing the Tigers to extend their lead to 7-2.
Cruz started the Pirates’ second-inning rally by drawing a leadoff walk and stealing second base.
That gave Cruz 30 steals this season and cemented his second straight 20-30 season. Cruz is just the third Pirate since 1887 to produce consecutive 20-30 seasons, joining Andy Van Slyke (1987-88) and Barry Bonds (1990-92).
O’Hearn nudged the Pirates in front, 1-0, with a line-drive single to right field on a 2-2 slider down, the left-handed hitter picking up his 75th RBI this season.
Between O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe (95), the Pirates have two left-handed-hitting teammates with 75 or more RBIs in a season for the first time since 2012 (Garrett Jones and Pedro Alvarez).
Furthermore, they’re the second pair of Pirates teammates since 1920 to each produce 75 or more RBIs in their first season with the team. The other instance occurred in 1999, with Brian Giles (115) and Ed Sprague (81).
Spencer Horwitz extended the Pirates’ lead to 2-0 two batters later with his line-drive double to right, the hit coming on a sinker Tigers starter Jackson Jobe left over the middle of the plate.
Horwitz has now hit safely in eight of his last 10 starts, batting .313 (10 for 32 PREGAME) during that time.
Jason Mackey: Jason.Mackey@pirates.com and @JMackey_PGH on X.