This game got ugly in a hurry. This one hurt.
It all started out so promising. Rajai Davis led off with his first of three hits for the night. Michael Brantley and Francisco Lindor walked. And with two outs, Brandon Guyer — yes, Guyer! — slugged a grand slam on the first pitch he saw to stake the Tribe to a 4-0 lead before the Tigers could bat.
Meanwhile, Erik Gonzalez put the Tribe lead back to four runs with a solo homer in the second.
In the fifth, Tomlin got into trouble. He gave up three consecutive hits — two singles and a double, which plated two more Detroit runs. Still, the Tribe was up 5-3.
And the Indians piled on in the sixth, sending 9 batters to the plate and scoring 3 more runs on singles by Yonder Alonso and doubles by Davis and Jose Ramirez. Sure, Tomlin gave up another gopher ball in bottom of the sixth, but the Tribe still nursed an 8-4 lead.
That’s when the wheels fell off. Dan Otero came in to start the seventh. He gave up single and a double to open the frame before forcing a ground out. Then a bouncer was hit to Lindor, who decided to throw home but botched the toss.
Call in our fireman, Andrew Miller. Granted, Miller is coming off the DL and has not found his groove yet. But he was terrible in this outing. He gave up back to back doubles, then walked three more batters. Between Otero and Miller, 11 Tiger hitters came to the plate and 5 runs scored. Painfully, the Tribe was down, 9-8.
You’d think the suffering was over. But to make matters even tougher to stomach, the Indians loaded the bases in the eight with no one out, but couldn’t push the tying run across. Guyer struck out and Jason Kipnis grounded into an inning-ending double play.
In the ninth, with two outs, Davis gave the Tribe another glimmer of hope. He bounced one back to Tigers’ closer Shane Greene, who took his sweet time then threw wildly down the first base line. Rajai went to second on the error, then to third on a wild pitch. Tying run on third, with Brantley at the dish. But, as this nightmare of a game would have it, Dr. Smooth grounded weakly to short to end the game.
This outing was full of the unexpected. Guyer hitting a grand salami. Tomlin pitching well enough to get his first W of the season. Miller being the goat, and looking very sheepish doing it. In the end, the bad surprises outweighed the good. And the Tribe sank a game below .500 again. Let’s turn the page on this one.