{"id":185092,"date":"2025-09-27T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185092\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:30:10","slug":"missed-opportunities-keep-tanking-the-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185092\/","title":{"rendered":"Missed opportunities keep tanking the Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Riley Greene stood here in the cramped visitors clubhouse at Fenway Park and again had to assess the damage, or maybe the lack thereof.<\/p>\n

Greene is one of the Tigers\u2019 most important players, the centerpiece of their lineup, the type of hitter they lean on to come through in these sterling September moments.<\/p>\n

In only his age-24 season, Greene has crushed 36 home runs, reached his greatest power ceiling and provided scoreboard-changing swings all year long. But here in September, Greene has also been the face of some of the Tigers\u2019 worsening offensive woes. Greene was 0-for-4 Friday night in a 4-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers haven\u2019t won back-to-back games since Sept. 9-10 against the New York Yankees. On a night when the Cleveland Guardians lost and the Tigers had a chance to gain ground, Greene and his teammates loaded the bus knowing they had let this one slip away.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say we could have better at-bats, you could say we could swing at better pitches,\u201d Greene said. \u201cYou could say all those things, but at the end of the day, that guy is throwing the ball, and we\u2019re trying to hit it, and it just is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

After another one got away, there is plenty of blame to go around. You could cast scorn on the team\u2019s construction. With the season on the line, the Red Sox had Aroldis Chapman firing triple-digit fastballs and staring Tigers hitters into the ground. Detroit countered with Tommy Kahnle, spinning a center-cut changeup that Ceddanne Rafaela smoked off the center-field wall to clinch a Red Sox postseason berth.<\/p>\n

You could revisit a costly play in the eighth inning, when pinch runner Nate Eaton stole second and catcher Dillon Dingler fired a throw that ended up trickling into the outfield, allowing Eaton to move to third and later score. Maybe Dingler should have put the ball on the money, or maybe he should have eaten it entirely. Maybe shortstop Javier B\u00e1ez should have stepped up and knocked the ball down instead of letting it travel and trying to swipe another one of his stupendous tags.<\/p>\n

You could go back to this moment or that moment and find ways to rationalize how the outcome could have been different. It has been that way for so much of a stretch that now includes 21 losses in 29 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to produce in the at-bats that matter,\u201d Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, \u201cand they beat us in those.\u201d<\/p>\n

The facts Friday: The Tigers went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position. They left 10 runners on base. It\u2019s less the totals that sting and more the way those squandered opportunities came to be.<\/p>\n

With one out in the first inning and the bases loaded, Greene struck out, whiffing on a slurve on the outer third.<\/p>\n

With the bases loaded in the fourth, Spencer Torkelson swung in an 0-1 count and popped up to the catcher. Greene followed by swinging at the first pitch and hitting a lazy liner for the third out.<\/p>\n

In the ninth, Justyn-Henry Malloy led off with a double against the powerful Chapman. Gleyber Torres got down 0-2 but did an admirable job peppering a groundball to the right side, advancing a runner to third. But then Wenceel P\u00e9rez struck out, overmatched by Chapman\u2019s velocity. Torkelson also punched, late on the triple-digit fastballs, and finally spun around like a top chasing a 1-2 slider.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not gonna capitalize on every opportunity, but you certainly want to, especially when you have them on the ropes,\u201d Hinch said. \u201cLack of contact a little bit in some big spots. The ball not getting out of the infield in a couple of spots. It all counts; it all matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of the season, the Tigers hit well situationally, moving the ball forward and having selfless at-bats. From Opening Day to Aug. 31, the Tigers ranked seventh with a .265 average with runners in scoring position. They struck out in only 21.9 percent of those at-bats.<\/p>\n

But here in September, with the losses mounting, they\u2019ve struggled to cash in. Perhaps that\u2019s just baseball, as so many have said. But entering Friday\u2019s game, the average with runners in scoring position this month is .217, 28th in the league. The strikeout rate in those situations has jumped to 26.9 percent, the third highest of any team.<\/p>\n

So is that simply the fickle nature of this game?<\/p>\n

Or is the pressure influencing a rise in errant swings and poor decisions?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, maybe not,\u201d Greene said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to help this team win. We\u2019re all trying. Are we pressing? Maybe. That\u2019s coming from wanting to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tigers starting pitcher Casey Mize pitched 6 1\/3 innings with eight strikeouts Friday in Boston. (Eric Canha \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not always an easy answer in cases like this. But the Tigers on Friday squandered a lead and wasted one of the best starts of Casey Mize\u2019s career. Mize pitched into the seventh, energizing his team, throttling top-rail fastballs and throwing effective sliders. His command was dialed in, and he cruised through much of his outing. But he left the game with runners on second and third. One of them scored on a sacrifice fly. That fact and the loss itself left a proud pitcher wrestling with his emotions in the Boston night. He pitched well, embraced the moment and largely rose to the occasion. He still left the game mid-inning, then watched as his team wilted away the lead.<\/p>\n

Possible, at all, to feel good in that kind of situation?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough this time of year to be happy with anything other than a win,\u201d Mize said. \u201cFor now, no. I might look back on it and think yes. But for now, no.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was all said and done, the Red Sox popped bottles and partied on the field.<\/p>\n

The Tigers, with their magic number still at two as of the final out, again milled around a silent clubhouse, left wondering how this one got away.<\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t correct course in the next two days, they could soon be wondering the same about their entire season.<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Riley Greene: Jim McIsaac \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Riley Greene stood here in the cramped visitors clubhouse at Fenway Park and again had to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[372,363,99],"class_list":["post-185092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}