ARLINGTON -- The Tigers have plenty of reasons to be impatient and anxious right now. They haven’t won a game in the past 11 days and have scored a grand total of one run in the past 20 innings. Their losing streak is now at six games, their longest this season, and for the first time since July 4, the Tigers no longer have the best winning percentage in the Majors.
And yet, even after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field, the Tigers are still fairly sanguine about their recent misfortunes. Despite being held scoreless for the first 17 innings of the series in Texas, and despite collecting only seven hits total in those two games, the Tigers aren’t anywhere near freak-out mode yet.
“It’s baseball,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “I feel like we’re one swing away from turning things around and getting more rhythm as an offense. For the first 90 games, it felt like we were getting that one [key] hit every single game, so not getting it for a couple of games is not the end of the world.”
Perhaps it helps knowing they still have a hearty 11-game lead in the AL Central, and surely they’re confident going into Sunday’s series finale with reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and All-Star starter Tarik Skubal on the mound.
“We love playing behind him -- we feel like that gives us a great shot at a win, for sure,” Torkelson said.
The Tigers also won’t have to face Rangers ace Nathan Eovaldi, who was supposed to face Skubal in a marquee pitching matchup in the finale Sunday. Eovaldi was scratched after Saturday’s game due to back tightness, and Jacob Latz will start for Texas instead.
On Saturday, Rangers rookie Kumar Rocker posted results worthy of a Skubal or Eovaldi start. Rocker no-hit the Tigers for 5 2/3 innings and left the game after 6 1/3 innings, allowing only one hit, scattering three walks and striking out five.
Tigers starter Keider Montero surrendered a three-run homer to Rowdy Tellez in the second, but the Tigers had a golden chance to break through against Rocker in the fourth inning, when he walked the first two hitters. With his command abandoning him, Rocker needed 20 pitches to record the first out of the inning, when Riley Greene flew out to left. Then Rocker fanned Torkelson and got Zach McKinstry on a weak grounder to quell any chance of a Detroit rally.
“That was a tough inning for us because after the three-run homer, it was frustrating, but then we did get the two walks back to back, and it felt like we could advance the runners a little bit,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Maybe you could chip away and create some pressure on their end. He’d had a lot of pitches at that point -- and then for two innings, he cruised.”
After that 31-pitch fourth, Rocker needed only 32 more pitches to get through the next 2 1/3 frames.
Greene’s ninth-inning homer broke the Tigers’ scoreless streak, which dated back to last Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to break the losing streak.
“We’re mad and frustrated, we want to be better and we’re getting tested a little bit ... at this level, when you don’t quite do enough on any aspect, the game’s not going to reward you,” Hinch said.
At 59-40, the Tigers are tied with the Cubs for the most wins in baseball, although Chicago has one fewer loss. Given the Tigers’ first-half success and comfortable division lead, is it possible that this losing streak feels less stressful than most six-game skids?
“Maybe,” Torkelson said. “Regardless, it sucks. There’s a little bit of wiggle room [in the standings], but we definitely don’t want to get complacent and think about [how] we’ve got losses to give.”