DETROIT — Already, Tigers skipper AJ Hinch is getting tired of the "Little Engine That Could" narrative.
How about the "Little Engine That Did?"
The Tigers were down to their final strike Sunday when Jeimer Candelario blasted his second home run of the game, a two-run shot off reliever Andrew Kittredge to tie the game 7-7 in the bottom of the 10th.
After Kyle Funkhouser put up a zero in the top of the 11th, with the help of a run-saving sliding, backhand play by second baseman Harold Castro, Robbie Grossman drew a bases loaded walk of reliever J.P. Feyereisen with the bases loaded and two outs, to give the Tigers an impressive 8-7 win over the East Division-leading Tampa Bay Rays at Comerica Park.
They had previously rallied back from a 5-2 deficit in the bottom of the eighth inning. Only to have the Rays score twice off Gregory Soto in the top of the 10th inning.
Rays' third baseman Yandy Diaz, who had a big hit in a four-run eighth inning, doubled in a run. A second run came home on a ground out.
Kittredge, who had put the Tigers down in the ninth, got two quick outs with the free runner moving to third base. Candelario got a 90-mph slider on a 2-2 pitch and mashed it, 421 feet into the seats in right-center, sending the game to the 11th inning.
The Tigers came to bat in the bottom of the eighth after getting tagged for four runs and seeing their 2-1 lead turn into a 5-2 deficit. But they greeted veteran reliever David Robertson with four straight hits.
Robertson was making his fifth appearance for the Rays after being out of baseball since 2019 (Tommy John surgery). The Rays signed him in August after scouting him pitching for Team USA in the Olympics.
Akil Baddoo, Jonathan Schoop, Robbie Grossman and Miguel Cabrera all singled off him to start the rally. Cabrera's single plated two runs and put the tying run at third.
After Grossman was cut down at the plate, pinch-runner Derek Hill was at second with one out. Harold Castro hit a long fly ball to the track in right-center.
Hill tagged and went to third easily. And when he saw that right fielder Brett Phillips over threw the cut-off man, he kept running. He lost his footing and nearly fell, but he belly-slid home with the tying run.
In what seemed like a completely separate game, the Tigers took a 2-1 lead into the top of the eighth.
They used a tandem start with Tarik Skubal and Jose Urena covering six innings and allowing just the one run. A solo home run by Candelario in the fourth inning broke a 1-1 tie.
After Michael Fulmer dispatched the Rays in the seventh, Jose Cisnero didn't record an out in the eighth.
Phillips ambushed a first-pitch fastball and lined his 11th homer of the year, a two-run shot. Cisnero hit Randy Arozarena and walked Manuel Margot. All four hitters Cisnero faced scored.
Hinch brought in Alex Lange. Nelson Cruz greeted him with a fly ball to the wall in center, that Akil Baddoo ran down but both runners tagged and advanced.
Next hitter, Diaz hit a high-chopper that deflected off third baseman Candelario's glove, scoring both runners.
You understand the rationale behind the shortened starts. With limited work in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, workloads have to be managed carefully this season and both Casey Mize and Skubal have quadrupled their innings over last year.
But, man, it would've been fun to see Skubal keep pitching on Sunday.
He breezed through his three innings on 49 pitches, punching out six Rays hitters. He allowed two base runners, a walk to Taylor Walls and a single to Arozarena. He mixed all his pitches, but his four-seam and two-seam fastballs, both averaging 95.5 mph and topping out at 98, and hard slider did most o the work .
Skubal has struck out at least four hitters in 22 straight outings, which is the most by a rookie in the expansion era.
He ended the first inning with a four-pitch strikeout of the ever-dangerous Cruz. Skubal threw a slider and change-up to start the at-bat, then threw a 96 four-seamer by him and froze him with a 98-mph four-seamer painted on the inside corner.
Textbook.
He left with a 1-0 lead after the Tigers broke through against Rays dynamic rookie starter Luis Patino, who had bullied the Tigers with his 97-mph fastball and power slider in the first two innings.
Dustin Garneau's broken-bat, bloop double with one out in the third was the first hit yielded by Patino. Victor Reyes, after falling behind 1-2, lashed a single to right field to score Garneau.
The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs, but Patino got Miguel Cabrera to ground out.
Urena, who turned 30 on Sunday, gave up a 400-foot home run to Cruz, the first batter he faced in the fourth, then nothing else through the sixth.
Candelario hoisted a slider over the wall in right field to lead off the fourth inning. His 13th homer put the Tigers up 2-1. It was just the fourth home run hit of Patino's slider this season. He had Candelario in an 0-2 hole, then threw him back-to-back sliders.
The first one missed. The second one, located down and in, Candelario smoked. The ball left his bat with an exit velocity of 105 mph.
