DETROIT _ There were signs of the Detroit Tigers' offense on Wednesday night.
They seemed to be getting the breaks they were craving _ a ground ball under the shortstop's glove, bloop hits falling in _ but it hasn't come easy for this bunch.
Holding a one-run lead late, righty Joe Jimenez was ineffective, allowing all three batters he faced to reach, and though Daniel Stumpf did his best to control the damage, the lead soon was gone.
Two innings later, the Tigers lost when Buck Farmer allowed three hits to open up the 10th inning. The game-winner was an RBI single by Colin Moran. The Tigers lost to the Pirates, 3-2, in extra innings for the second straight game.
With the loss, they fell below the .500 mark, at 8-9.
Spencer Turnbull pitched well, allowing one unearned run on two hits over six innings. Turnbull struck out five batters and walked two.
The unearned run came in the fourth inning, when Ronny Rodriguez let a ball through him at shortstop.
The Tigers responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs for the lead. First, Miguel Cabrera scored from third base on a sacrifice fly. Then, John Hicks blooped a pitch into left-center field.
Despite solid showings from Turnbull early on, it's anybody's guess as to what the Tigers will get out of the rookie from start to start. In this game, against an underwhelming Pittsburgh offense, he dominated with movement, especially a snappy slider. Turnbull allowed two to reach in the first inning but wasn't threatened from there. Turnbull was in line for his first career win before the Tigers' bullpen coughed up the lead late.
A night earlier, Gordon Beckham was thrown out at home plate in an over-aggressive send by third base coach Dave Clark. The reasoning? The Tigers haven't been scoring many runs, so when one is there for the taking, they're going to try to take it. This night, Clark did not need to guide Cabrera: The veteran sensed a scoring opportunity on a semi-shallow fly ball to left field and beat the throw by inches on a feet-first slide into home plate.
