Jake Rogers ducked out of the way.
A wild slider from Los Angeles Angels right-hander Griffin Canning nearly hit Rogers in the face, but the Detroit Tigers’ catcher — batting in the nine-hole — leaned back at the last second to avoid getting hit by the pitch. Rogers responded by crushing the next pitch for a two-run home run with two outs in the sixth inning.
It was a cool moment, but the Tigers lost to the Angels, 6-5, on Saturday in the third of four games at Angel Stadium, marking their fourth loss in a row and their 16th loss in 22 games. In the latest loss, Kevin Pillar hit a walk-off single off right-handed reliever Jason Foley in the bottom of the 10th inning.
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Rogers has a .444 batting average with three home runs in 10 plate appearances against Canning in his MLB career. In Saturday’s game, Rogers smoked Canning’s middle-middle fastball for a 443-foot home run to left-center field.
His homer extended the Tigers’ lead to 5-2 in the sixth.
But the Tigers (37-46) — falling nine games below .500 and 16 games behind first place in the American League Central — couldn’t stop a comeback from the Angels.
After Rogers’ home run, the Angels scored two runs in the seventh inning and one run in the eighth to tie the game at five runs apiece before Pillar’s walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.
The Angels trimmed their deficit to 5-4 with a two-run double from Taylor Ward off right-handed reliever Beau Brieske’s first-pitch fastball with one out in the seventh inning. In the eighth, Logan O’Hoppe, who blasted a clutch home run in Friday’s game, smoked a first-pitch slider from right-handed reliever Will Vest for a solo home run to left-center field, making it 5-5.
The game went into extra innings, but the Tigers — despite the free runner on second base — failed to score in the top of the 10th against flame-throwing right-handed reliever Ben Joyce, whose fastball averaged 100.4 mph.
The Angels, of course, scored in the bottom of the 10th.
Facing Foley, Luis Guillorme dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance the free runner to third base. After that, the Tigers called Matt Vierling from center field to create a five-man infield in search of a ground out to keep the runner at third base, but Pillar smacked Foley’s first-pitch sinker into left field for a line-drive single to end the game.
The Tigers have a 1-5 record in extra innings since winning three times in extra innings during their first five games of the season.
Reese’s piece
Right-hander Reese Olson, who flashed the best version of his slider, allowed two runs on five hits and three walks with nine strikeouts across six innings, throwing 98 pitches.
The Angels, though, had at least one runner on base in five of their six innings against Olson.
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The leadoff hitter reached safely in all five of those innings: Nolan Schanuel’s single in the first, Willie Calhoun’s double in the second, Schanuel’s walk in the third, Schanuel’s double in the fifth and Calhoun’s walk in the sixth.
The Angels scored both runs in the third for a 2-1 lead. The first run scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, and the second run scored on a groundout with two runners in scoring position.
Otherwise, Olson worked his way out of trouble.
Olson struck out three batters in a row — Zach Neto (swinging strike, slider), Mickey Moniak (swinging strike, slider), Jo Adell (called strike, fastball) — to strand runners on the corners in the second. After Calhoun’s walk, O’Hoppe struck out swinging, Neto flew out and Moniak struck out swinging to end the sixth.
That’s how Olson ended his 16th start.
He owns a 3.32 ERA in 89⅓ innings.
The early runs
The Tigers scored one run in the first inning and two runs in the fourth inning.
The first run scored as a result of singles from Wenceel Pérez and Vierling, along with Riley Greene reaching safely on a fielding error. With one out, Colt Keith grounded into a force out with the bases loaded for a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, Colt Keith and Gio Urshela collected back-to-back singles. Thanks to those hits, the Tigers ended up taking a 3-2 lead when the runs scored on Zach McKinstry’s groundout and Rogers’ sacrifice fly.
Canning allowed five runs (four earned runs) on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts in six innings, throwing 102 pitches. He has a 4.71 ERA in 17 starts.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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