PITTSBURGH _ This was not an aesthetically-pleasing baseball game, by any stretch. And the Tigers could not care less.
With a lot of help from the home team, the Tigers scratched across a run in the top of the eighth inning and snapped their four-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates Tuesday night.
The Tigers, who had squandered a 4-1 lead, took advantage of a walk, hit batsman and a botched double-play ball to score the go-ahead run.
With the bases loaded and one out, Pirates reliever Kyle Crick got Brandon Dixon to hit a ground ball to second baseman Adam Frazier. Instead of flipping the ball to his shortstop at second base to start the double-play, he tried to tag Christin Stewart, who was running to second.
He missed the tag and barely got Dixon at first. Nick Castellanos, who walked to start the inning, scored from third.
That left it up to the back end of the Tigers bullpen.
Things got mighty dicey in the eighth against Joe Jimenez, who needed 31 pitches to get through the inning. He gave up a hit, a hit batsman and a walk, but with the bases loaded and two outs, he got pinch-hitter Corey Dickerson to ground out to shortstop Niko Goodrum.
It wasn't any cleaner for closer Shane Greene in the ninth, either. He gave up a single and a walk. So with one out, the ever-dangerous Josh Bell strode to the plate. Bell had already homered in this game.
But what do you know, Greene got Bell to bounce into a 1-6-3 double-play.
The Tigers middle relievers didn't fare as well. The Pirates scored two unearned in the seventh inning to erase a 4-2 deficit, blighting a strong start by lefty Daniel Norris.
It started, as it so often does with an error. Right-handed reliever Victor Alcantara had a one-out ground ball bounce off him. He recovered in plenty of time, but his throw was low and Miguel Cabrera, making his first start at first base since the end of May 31, could not scoop it.
Jung Ho Kang ended up on second base, then went to third one a ground out. Manager Ron Gardenhire called on lefty Daniel Stumpf to face left-handed pinch-hitter Colin Moran. Moran singled to make it 4-3.
Gardenhire then went with right-hander Buck Farmer against right-handed Kevin Newman _ triple, tie game.
The late-inning drama overshadowed Norris' resolute six-inning effort.
Composure isn't typically the first trait that comes up when describing Norris. Fiery, athletic, animated, competitive, absolutely.
Composure? That's usually a little farther down the list.
Not so on Tuesday night.
He allowed four hits, one a 419-foot home run by Bell (his 20th homer and 66th RBI) and got 10 ground-ball outs. Bell, who is slugging a Major League Baseball best .640 on off-speed pitches, hit a change-up with an exit velocity of 108 mph.
Flash forward to the sixth inning. Norris, protecting a two-run lead, was over 80 pitches and nearing the end of his night. He got ahead of Bell with a couple of 90-mph fastballs and showed him a slider and a curveball for good measure.
But with the count even, Norris, undaunted by what happened in the third inning, challenged him with another change-up. He struck him out swinging. Norris got five swings and misses total, four of them with the change-up.
Norris was in one other jam, in the fifth. Catcher Elias Diaz, who threw out two Tigers' base-stealers, singled and scored on a triple by Kang. Kang hit a missile into right-center. Center fielder JaCoby Jones made a valiant, all-out dive for the ball but couldn't get to it.
Norris, though, didn't rattle. He got Adam Frazier on a shallow fly to center, struck out pinch-hitter Jose Osuna and after a walk to Newman, he got Bryan Reynolds to ground out.
He left after six innings with the two-run lead intact.
The Tigers offense was contained to the third and fourth innings.
It's a wonder Castellanos' hands weren't bleeding, given how much extra batting practice he took before the game. But whatever he did seemed to work. After walking the first inning, he laced a two-strike double to the gap in right-center field in the third inning to score the Tigers' first run.
He came around to score on Cabrera's single, putting the Tigers up 2-1. It was Cabrera's 1,665th career RBI, putting him two back of Sammy Sosa for 27th all-time.
Cabrera started the game at first base, and since this is the Tigers last game in a National League park, perhaps for the last time this season.
"He didn't want to sit two games out and just pinch-hit," Gardenhire said before the game. "He had a day off Sunday and we were off Monday, so this was the perfect time to do it. We'll see how he feels tomorrow, but we'll probably let him sit tomorrow."
The Tigers were gifted two more runs in the fourth inning. After a lead-off single by Dixon, Harold Castro put down a sacrifice bunt. Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller threw it away, putting runners on second and third.
John Hicks followed with a routine ground ball to third (exit velocity off the bat 78 mph) that went through third baseman Kang, scoring two runs.
