Braves 10, Tigers 1: Detroit’s skid continues in series opener

For a while, it was okay to call it a slump. We could say, “No big deal, they’ll turn it around.” Then, for a stretch there we could look at it and say “These are some must-win games” against a division rival, that the team subsequently lost. All of them. But we’re coming to a point right now where it’s not “we have to win to get the first seed in the postseason,” it’s “if we don’t start winning games, we might not even win the division.” Now, admittedly, a lot would have to go wrong for the Tigers over the next week for that to be a reality, but the fact that it’s not an impossibility says an awful lot about how bad this month has been. The Tigers, coming into Friday’s game, were 3-7 in their last 10 games. (The Guardians were 9-1.) The Atlanta Braves are a sub .500 team, fourth in the AL East, and a team the Tigers could have easily beaten before the All-Star break. The Tigers playing tonight were not those same Tigers.

Detroit was leaning on Charlie Morton, their trade deadline solution to help bolster their flagging starting rotation. Morton, since coming to the Tigers, has not lived up to the hopes that brought him here. Saying he is not living up to expectations, however, would be unfair, because he is performing almost exactly as well as he was in Baltimore to start the season. This is not the Charlie Morton of 2018 or 2019. Morton is 41, and it shows. In Friday’s outing, he was up against Bryce Elder, who was very much his younger at 26. Performance-wise, Elder came into the game with a 5.45 ERA over 27 starts, so while this was never likely to be a pitcher’s duel, Elder certainly shouldn’t have had Morton’s number so readily.

The game started, and it didn’t take long to show that Morton didn’t have his stuff and that this fourth-place team was not going to easily hand over the wins the Tigers so desperately needed. Jurickson Profar got a leadoff double, then Matt Olson got a free bag on a hit-by-pitch. The Braves had to challenge the call on the field to get the HBP call. Ronald Acuna Jr. drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Morton’s command struggles continued as he just couldn’t seem to get into the zone. Drake Baldwin walked to bring in the first run of the game. An Ozzie Albies single then brought in two more runs. Still no outs. Morton was finally able to turn things around to get three outs in a row to end the inning, but it was a phenomenally rough start to the game. In the home half, Gleyber Torres got himself a single, but that was it. What’s astonishing in terms of how bad the Tigers have been at converting their baserunners lately is that over the season, they’re not even in the top 20 of teams in terms of LOB issues (the Braves are actually the highest), it just feels especially painful lately as they’ve struggled to score runs.

Nacho Alvarez Jr. singled to start the second. He advanced to second on a Profar groundout, then a Matt Olson double brought him home. Acuna Jr. then homered, bringing the Braves’ lead to 6-0. Given the difficulty the Tigers have had this month overcoming even moderate leads, that was going to be a tall order for Detroit. Morton’s day was done, Hinch not letting him have any more leash to hang himself, and they dipped into the bullpen for Rafael Montero. Drake Baldwin singled, but was soon eliminated by a double play off the bat of Ozzie Albies. The Tigers didn’t bother getting a runner to leave on base in the home half; they opted instead to go 1-2-3.

Montero did a great job of righting the ship in the third. With two outs, Michael Harris II walked, but a third out quickly shut down any Braves’ hopes of another scoring push. Parker Meadows got a triple thanks to some sloppy fielding by Ronald Acuna Jr, but with two outs already, even with a runner 90 feet away, they couldn’t manage to bring him in.

Chris Paddack replaced Montero in the fourth and got the Braves out in order, going through the top of their order with the kind of ease we would have liked to see much earlier in this game. The Tigers got two outs into the home half before they finally got something going, as Spencer Torkelson got a solo home run. It was the only run of the inning, but it would hopefully prove to be enough to ignite a spark. It was also Torkelson’s 30th home run of the season, getting him close to tying and hopefully breaking his 2023 record of 31.

In the fifth, Paddack continued to get weak contact off the opposition, with only an Ozzie Albies single allowing a baserunner, while two groundouts and a swinging strikeout took care of the rest of the Braves in the inning. Javier Baez opened the home half with a single, but was swiftly eliminated in a double play off the bat of Zach McKinstry. A Jake Rogers groundout wrapped up the inning, once again with no runs scored.

The sixth saw another 1-2-3 for Paddack, which had made for a really nice three innings of work from Paddack, who took a little time to slot in within the Tigers’ pitchers, but seems to be getting comfortable handling the middle innings/long relief for games exactly like this. Gleyber Torres got a one-out single in the home half. Meanwhile, with two outs we got a really competitive bat out of Riley Greene, which unfortunately still ended with a line drive out.

Paddack, bless him, was still going strong in the seventh with another three-up, three-down inning. At this stage in the game, I wanted to determine if I could blame the City Connect uniforms for the Tigers’ performance woes this year, even though I knew that was a bit of a stretch. However, the results were inconclusive. The Tigers have won 7 of 12 Friday home games, where they sport the Motor City uniforms. I suppose we’ll have to blame it on the actual gameplay. All this to preface that the Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.

Things finally got a bit rocky for Chris Paddack in the top of the eighth. Ozzie Albies singled, then Ha-Seong Kim homered, bumping the score up to 8-1. We are continuing to steer into my theory that last August someone asked a genie to give the Tigers one great season but forgot to specify it should all be the same season, and so we got the end of last year and the start of this one, and I suppose we should be grateful for it, but… curse you genie wish, curse you. Anyway, Paddack for the outs to end the inning, and despite the home run has still been the most reliable part of this game. Elder’s day was finally done after seven innings of work, and he was replaced by Tyler Kinley. McKinstry flied out, and it was just one more case in this game of the Tigers making good hits that just fall short or in the wrong part of the park. This inning was no different, with an awkward hit bobbling back to the pitcher and a pop out to end the inning without so much as a baserunner.

Paul Sewald came in to pitch for the Tigers in the ninth. Sewald was benched with an injury since his trade to the Tigers, so it’ll be nice to see what he can offer the team, and this is a fairly low-stakes place to bring him in to get a preview. Profar singled to start the inning. With two outs, Drake Baldwin homered, bumping the score up to 10-1. Albies continued to have a great game against the Tigers, getting a walk, and that was it for Sewald, whose preview outing didn’t go great, if we’re being honest. With a nine-run lead, the bullpen was safe at this point, and Zach McKinstry was coming in to pitch. On his first batter, McKinstry used a nice little eephus to get the last out of the inning on a groundout.

Hunter Stratton came in for the bottom of the ninth, and he got the Tigers out without much struggle. The Tigers need to shake off this abysmal week of play and turn things around this weekend.

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