DETROIT -- The Tigers won the anthem standoff Wednesday evening. It didn’t carry into the game. Daniel Stumpf almost didn’t see the game from the dugout, either.

“I got threatened to get thrown out of the game,” the Tigers reliever said after Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Marlins at Comerica Park. “The third-base umpire [Paul Nauert] said to get off the field or he was going to throw me out. … Everybody was yelling to me in the dugout, saying you better not move. I wasn’t going to give it up.”

Stumpf wasn’t looking for a slump-buster when he took his spot in front of the Tigers' dugout for the national anthem. He was just doing his daily ritual of making sure he’s the last one off the field. Normally he has help from his fellow relievers, but Stumpf was on his own Wednesday.

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“I kind of just stand out there every time and make sure that everyone walks off,” Stumpf said. “And it just so happened I had someone that did not walk off.”

That was Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara, who was standing around the same spot in front of the visiting dugout.

“I saw they were leaving,” Alcantara said, “and I saw one man staying there. I said, 'OK, I'll stay here and see what happens.'”

So, they looked at each other and didn’t move -- Stumpf with his cap in his right hand over his heart, Alcantara the same. They were still in that position as Tigers starter Daniel Norris was completing his warmup tosses for the game.

“I was thinking, ‘Do I get more warmup tosses for this?’” Norris said.

One Marlins player gave Alcantara a helmet to protect himself from foul balls. Curtis Granderson gave him a mask and chest protector. Nicholas Castellanos gave Stumpf a drink of water. Strength and conditioning coach Yousef Zamat wiped his forehead with a towel.

The standoff took on a new tension when the umpires intervened.

“My heart really got racing when [Nauert] said he was going to throw me out. I was available for the game today. [Alcantara] is a starting pitcher. If [Nauert] threw me out of the game, I think [manager Ron Gardenhire] might have been a little upset.”

Around the same time, crew chief Fieldin Culbreth walked over from his post at second base to send the same message to Alcantara.

"I lost because the umpire came and said, 'I don't want to throw you out. Go sit,'” Alcantara said. “And, I go sit down.”

That was the break Stumpf needed.

“I kind of was ignoring [Nauert] a little bit,” Stumpf said. “I saw [Culbreth] over there talking to [Alcantara]. He started to lean back a little bit, so I was going to stay and see what happens.”

The luck seemingly carried over, with Detroit scoring in each of its first three innings off Marlins starter Jose Urena. Once Christin Stewart doubled home Ronnie Rodriguez in the third, the Tigers had their first three-run lead in 10 days since their last win, which came on May 12 at Minnesota.

No Tigers pitcher had tossed a quality start since that win, a game Norris started and won. For six innings Wednesday, Norris looked poised to do the same, with Garrett Cooper’s first Major League home run as his only damage. Again, Norris' unpredictable combination of fastballs, changeups and breaking balls kept hitters off balance.

“Immediately out of the gates, they were hitting the fastball,” Norris said, noting the Marlins did the same the previous night against Spencer Turnbull. “I wanted to see what they were going to do against me, but they came out swinging at that, so we immediately devised a game plan and figured something else out.”

When the Tigers couldn’t turn a two-on, no-out opportunity into add-on runs in the seventh, their 3-1 lead looked perilous, enough that Gardenhire turned to right-hander Buck Farmer for the bottom of the Marlins' order after a Harold Ramirez leadoff single in the latter half of the inning. Three hits from Miami’s next four batters left Detroit trailing again, including Neil Walker’s game-tying double and Miguel Rojas’ go-ahead single. Brian Anderson’s two-run homer off Victor Alcantara in the eighth provided insurance.

“Tonight makes it tougher, just because I know a win would’ve been huge tonight,” Farmer said. “I just didn’t do my job.”

It was a different path to defeat, but a defeat nonetheless. And as the Tigers look to change their fortunes, they’re still looking for luck to loosen up a pressing club.

“It’s going to take a win out there on the field more than anything else,” Gardenhire said. “I can go through the clubhouse all the time, talking about things just in general, just to let them know I’m not nervous. I just want to get back out there and play another game and win one. And I just want that effect to go through. I think they get that part of it.

“I’m not on edge, my coaching staff’s not on edge, other than we want to win a ballgame. The fans want one, desperately, and we’d like to give it to them.”