In the 11th, the Tigers took the lead when Wenceel Pérez doubled to right, knocking in Greene, the free runner, to open the inning. Soon after, Colt Keith was walked to load the bases with nobody out. Dillon Dingler struck out. After the Marlins turned to lefty Josh Simpson, he threw a wild pitch, but the ball bounced off the backstop and Spencer Torkelson, coming home from third, was tagged out at the plate. The Marlins then intentionally walked Jahmai Jones and struck out Parker Meadows to hold the Tigers to one run from a bases loaded with no outs situation.

Rafael Montero pitched the 11th, and nearly got out of a runners-on-first-and-third jam, inducing a ground ball from Heriberto Hernández to defensive replacement Javier Báez. But the Tigers couldn’t turn the double play, and the Marlins tied it up and brought Johnston back to the plate.

The Tigers (84-65) will finish this six-game, two-city road trip on Sunday, Sept. 13 (1:40 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit) with a bullpen game against the Marlins (70-79). Detroit’s magic number to clinch the American League Central remained at eight, with the Tigers’ division lead on Cleveland shrinking to seven games, with the Guardians playing the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night.

Charlie Morton dances through trouble

Right-hander Charlie Morton got the start for the Tigers and he spent the better part of the afternoon walking through a minefield of his own making.

Miami scored first off an Agustín Ramírez double, a Dingler throwing error and an Otto Lopez single. Not that it really mattered, but he probably would have scored even without the throwing error.

Morton made the situation more dramatic when he was called for a balk – after throwing to first three times without picking off the runner – and Lopez advanced to second. But Morton got out of it when Hernández grounded out to third.

He got into trouble in the second when he walked Acosta, he advanced to second on a ground out and scored off a Javier Sanoja double. After walking Marsee, he was in serious trouble.  But he got out of it by striking out Ramirez to end the inning.

He got into trouble again in the third inning after a pair of walks but got out of it when Maximo Acosta grounded out to thid as Colt Keith made a nice running throw.

Morton was done after four innings, giving up two runs. He gave up three hits and walked four but had four strikeouts.

Melton gives Tigers a chance to win it

Troy Melton, the 24-year-old rookie right hander, had another solid performance, pitching in his 13^th game.

He gave up a tying homer to Johnston – who came into the game with just one in his career – in the sixth inning but Melton was otherwise solid. He went three innings and tried to sneak annother inning in by walking to the middle of the dugout, but Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked down the dugout to track him down and shake his hand, signalling the end of his outing.

Melton threw three innings, giving up a run off two hits and left the game after the seventh inning with the score tied, 3-3.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.