Tigers salvage series finale vs. Rays to halt 3-game losing skid

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Jun 22, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — You don’t accept excuses, but facts are facts, as they say.

And the fact is, this has been an arduous week for the Detroit Tigers.

They played their 12th game in 14 games Sunday, including a long, split doubleheader at Comerica Park on Thursday, a flight that got to Tampa at 3 a.m. Friday, night game Friday, noon games Saturday and Sunday — in dense 90-plus-degree heat and against the hottest team in baseball.

“It’s brutal,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game Sunday. “Guys are banged up and tired and frustrated with a couple of the losses. … It’s part of it. It’s not been great. We’re not playing our best through it.

“But we’re going to keep working, keep trying to deal with the circumstances. But yeah, not good.”

At least the flight home was a happy one.

Wenceel Perez lined an opposite-field, two-run homer, on an 0-2 fastball from lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger, breaking a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning and helping the Tigers snap a three-game losing streak and salvage the finale with a 9-3 win against the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.

They blew the game open with a six-run ninth against reliever Forrest Whitley, keyed by a three-run blast by Parker Meadows. Spencer Torkelson sliced an RBI double. Perez also singled in a run. And, in keeping with the theme of the week, the game was delayed 18 minutes by a sudden shower before the Tigers even made an out in the top of the ninth.

“We’re not going to take the mentality of every time we win, we’re great, and every time we lose, we suck,” Hinch said. “That’s not how you get through this type of schedule, and it’s not how you get through this type of season.

“We will be fine.”

They expect Casey Mize to be fine, too, though he left the game with the trainer one batter into the sixth inning. The heat index Sunday was over 100 degrees and that may have played a factor.

Mize grimaced after throwing a 92-mph fastball to Junior Caminero. Mize was firing it between 94 and 97 mph.

Immediately, Hinch and trainer Kelly Rhoades came to the mound. Mize tried to stretch his right leg out, as if trying to relieve a cramp. There was no immediate word from the Tigers, but Mize left the game at that point.

The only damage against him in five-plus innings was a solo homer by Caminero, who crushed a hanging depth-slider leading off the fourth.

Riley Greene, who grew up two hours away from Tampa, had an outstanding series. He homered twice on Friday, and on Sunday he doubled twice and scored twice.

He also did his level best to keep Mize’s track clean with three outstanding defensive plays in left field.

With a runner on in the second inning, Greene ran a long way toward the left-field line, laid out and caught a slicing bloop off the bat of Jake Mangum. With a runner on third and two outs in the third, he tracked a slicing foul ball to the side wall, leaped up and nearly all the way over the wall to make the catch.

In the fourth, he tracked a laser into the left-field gap and took extra bases away from Jonathan Aranda.

Later, with the Tigers protecting the two-run lead in the eighth, Greene made another sliding catch after a long run, taking a hit from Caminero. Brandon Lowe was on first base with no outs, so it was a critical catch.

The Tigers bullpen, which got a much-needed break Saturday because starter Sawyer Gipson-Long ate 6 1/3 innings in bulk relief, locked down the final 12 outs.

Tyler Holton and Chase Lee got five outs. Tommy Kahnle got four big outs before the Tigers blew it open. Lefty Brant Hurter, who threw 31 pitches Saturday as the opener, started the ninth, but couldn't find the plate.

He threw 18 pitches, just seven strikes, loading the bases with a pair of walks and a hit-batsman.

Brenan Hanifee was summoned and got through the ninth, allowing a two-run single by Taylor Walls.

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