MINNEAPOLIS -- Tigers manager A.J. Hinch laid out the challenge for his club long before first pitch Monday at Target Field.
“I told the guys: This is going to be the toughest environment to play in mentally,” he said Monday afternoon from the mercifully-heated dugout bench. “Just because the conditions are going to be the coldest it’s going to be all year, and there’s not going to be a ton of energy in the ballpark when it’s like this, you have to create your own energy. And it’s our reality. We’re going to play in it, they’re going to play in it, and you have to keep your focus on the competition and not the elements. And it’s a challenge.”
Hours later, as they processed a 7-3 loss to a Twins team that they beat five times in seven games here last season, they had some lessons learned.
“It didn’t get warmer when [the Twins] were playing. I mean, it’s the same for both teams,” Hinch said. “It wasn’t great, but it is what it is. The game’s scheduled and we need to play better in the environment regardless of the weather.”
It would be easy to write off as just one game, a bad night with temperatures in the 30s, a frigid wind chill and a stomach bug going through the clubhouse that forced Kerry Carpenter out of the lineup against a team he has crushed his whole career (1.076 career OPS vs. Twins).
The Tigers held their own on their season-opening trip to San Diego and Arizona, then outclassed the Cardinals under unseasonably warm conditions Friday and Saturday at Comerica Park. But coupled with Sunday night’s 5-3 loss to St. Louis under conditions nearly as chilly as Monday’s in Minnesota, they’ve struggled back-to-back nights in the cold.
In both losses, the Tigers struggled at the plate to capitalize on conditions that left pitchers searching for command, going 3-for-16 combined with runners in scoring position and leaving 18 combined runners on base despite seven walks in each game. In both games, they had a baserunning read that came back to haunt them. Each game also featured a defensive miscue that led to extended innings.
And the Tigers might not be done with these conditions. Temperatures are forecast to be slightly warmer for ace Tarik Skubal on Tuesday, but not by much. And while the forecast warms for the final two games of the series, the Tigers then return to Detroit for a six-game homestand at a time when the weather in Michigan is always tricky to predict.
In Monday’s loss, three situations seemed to sum up the night.
1. The bounce off the backstop
On Sunday, the Tigers arguably missed an opportunity for a tying run when Parker Meadows had to scramble back to second base on a Javier Báez sinking liner that was caught by Jordan Walker for a sacrifice fly. On Monday, Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene took off from first and second base, respectively, when Kody Funderburk airmailed a pitch to Zach McKinstry.
It was the right read – until the ball caromed off the backstop and right back to catcher Victor Caratini. Greene saw the bounce and retreated back to second, but Torkelson kept going until he saw Greene, too late to avoid a rundown.
“It’s pretty unlucky,” Hinch said. “I mean, we know – we’ve played here a ton, so we know – the ball to the backstop has a chance to do that. But generally you don’t see a ball in the air get back to the backstop, but low enough to hit the hard part of the backstop. So it’s pretty unlucky. Riley was able to get back, and Tork had read it to try to get to second as the tying run. It’s unfortunate. It’s a rare play, because usually balls in the dirt are the ones that go to the backstop, not air balls.”
2. Missed ball in left
Just as the winds wreaked havoc on fly balls Sunday in Detroit, Monday’s conditions forced fielders to follow fly balls all the way into their gloves. But left fielder Matt Vierling didn’t blame winds Monday for his errant missed catch that put runners on second and third with nobody out in the second inning.
“I read it as [center fielder Parker Meadows’] ball to begin with,” Vierling said. “And then as I kept going, I realized it started coming back toward me, and then I overran it, went toward my back shoulder and missed it, flat-out missed it. Yeah, that’s not me. Just note it and move on.”
Casey Mize escaped the jam, stranding the bases loaded. But the 29-pitch second inning preceded a 28-pitch third inning that led to the Twins’ three-run breakthrough.
3. Mize-erable conditions
Mize, who had an outstanding season debut in Arizona last week, never looked comfortable Monday, walking three of his first 12 batters and struggling to throw to locations of the strike zone. With no feel for his big-breaking slider, labeled a slurve on Statcast, he leaned on his four-seamer, smaller slider and a splitter he used for three of his four strikeouts.
Mize’s fastball velocity dropped as the temperatures grew colder, and the Twins capitalized, pulling ahead for good on Luke Keaschall’s two-run homer off a 91.4-mph fastball in the fourth inning.
“Tough night to pitch, which made it hard on me,” Mize said. “But I didn’t pitch well.”