TORONTO -- Max Clark wasn’t there when the Tigers enjoyed improbable postseason pushes in each of the last two seasons, but he’s getting in on the fun now.
The Tigers (71-79) are still 4 1/2 games back of the final American League Wild Card spot, but their former top prospect came up with a big September hit. He dunked a go-ahead two-run double into left field in the seventh, part of a four-run inning that turned Monday night’s 6-5 rollercoaster win over the Blue Jays on its head.
“All-encompassing grit is really what it is,” Clark said after the rally.
Comebacks are baked into the Tigers’ DNA at this point. Even though Blue Jays starter José Soriano took a no-hitter into the seventh, the Tigers didn’t flinch.
"It's just trying to find a way to scratch a baserunner and then see what happens,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “I was talking to [Kevin] McGonigle on the steps right before one of his at-bats. I was like, ‘It's only 2-0,’ because it felt like we were down five and six runs because of how many baserunners they had and how little baserunners we had."
Gleyber Torres added: “We always follow the same plan. Soriano was pitching really well, he was commanding every pitch … we were just waiting for the mistake.”
Detroit didn’t register a hit until Torres’ line-drive single to lead off the seventh, but it was contagious. Riley Greene and Dillon Dingler followed with base knocks to plate Detroit’s first run. Clark and Spencer Torkelson piled on with consecutive RBI doubles. Cheers from the sell-out crowd of 42,867 at Rogers Centre quickly turned to groans as Clark’s flare dropped down the left-field line.
“Those games for him [Clark] teaches more patience and more consistency on the plate,” Torres said. “He's been so mature in those types of moments. I'm not surprised [by] what he did tonight. We're waiting for him to come through in those special moments, and he did it."
Soriano faced the minimum through 5 1/3 innings as he pounded the zone with sinkers and induced chases on his secondary pitches. But Zach McKinstry walked to end his bid for perfection -- ball four was borderline, but catcher Alejandro Kirk opted not to challenge.
"It was the third time I faced the same lineup, so sometimes that's tough facing them three or four times,” Soriano said. “They made a different approach. Credit to their hitters.”
He was right, the Tigers did adjust. Clark said it started in the fifth when he laid off a pair of pitches below the zone.
“We finally committed to the approach of not swinging at the sinker down,” Clark said. “He's so good at locating it at the bottom third, and there's really not much you can do with that pitch. And it took us five innings to finally buy in and be like, ‘We’re not swinging at that bottom rail,’ and forcing him to throw it in the heart of the plate -- and he did. And that's when we got to him.”
The Tigers offense kept grinding to back their pitching staff after Troy Melton’s shortest start of the season. It was another frustrating outing for the 25-year-old, who allowed five hits and four walks on 76 pitches (45 strikes) before being removed after only 2 2/3 innings.
Melton allowed two runs in the first, but zero hard-hit balls. The Tigers were two inches away from getting two outs -- a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play of George Springer and Brett Bateman -- but Dingler’s challenge was unsuccessful. Instead, Springer walked to put runners on first and second with none out, and both scored on Kirk’s RBI single.
“That's how the game’s won and lost on the small margins,” Melton said “So, yeah, it wasn't good. There were some big misses too. I think the changeup in particular, I didn't have good feel for it, and I think that really hurt me today.”
Outside of Kazuma Okamoto’s go-ahead three-run blast off Kyle Finnegan in the bottom of the seventh, the bullpen locked it down. Beau Brieske, Tyler Holton, Tyler Kinley and Kenley Jansen combined for 5 1/3 shutout frames. Blue Jays closer Louis Varland entered with runners on the corners in the eighth, needing five outs to lock down the save. But Brett Callahan dropped an RBI single into left, tying the game again and setting up McKinstry to score the winning run on an error in the ninth after swiping second.