The Detroit Tigers had a few sloppy defensive plays in their 8-4 Father’s Day loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, June 15, at Comerica Park.
But one in particular stands out.
With the Reds having runners on first and second base and down by one run in the top of the eighth inning, first baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand punched a Will Vest sinker on the ground towards Tigers third baseman Zach McKinstry.
It was a tailor-made double-play opportunity, but it came with a few complications.
For one, McKinstry bobbled it. Not for a long time, just a split second — often not enough to make an infielder reconsider a throw to second base.
The trouble for McKinstry was that Elly De La Cruz, one of the most electric baserunners in baseball, was heading towards second base as McKinstry made the throw. De La Cruz slid in time, second baseman Gleyber Torres fired a throw to first, and after a review umpires determined that Encarnacion-Strand was safe at first.
A play that could’ve snuffed the Reds rally instead gave them life in the eighth, with a sacrifice fly from Will Benson in the next at-bat tying the game. The Reds scored two more runs in the eighth and two in the ninth, capping off the series-winning victory.
McKinstry’s bobble was not officially scored an error, though the Tigers did record three of those on a challenging defensive day. If you look at the official scorebook, McKinstry’s bobble reads as a fielder’s choice, with good hustle from De La Cruz and Encarnacion-Strand making it a winning play for the Reds.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch sees it that way, too.
“I thought the McKinstry one where we didn’t turn the double play, it’s not sloppy,” Hinch said. “He was in the play, he just mishandled it.”
Torres gave credit to the Reds’ young star for turning that into a game-shifting play for Cincinnati.
“De La Cruz hustled really well,” he said. “I was surprised when they called safe, but I saw the replay and he was really safe.”
De La Cruz was halfway responsible for the Reds’ first run of the game in the fourth inning, reaching on a soft infield hit and advancing to second after Tigers pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long committed a throwing error. He scored soon after on a Tyler Stephenson single.
Relief pitcher Brant Hurter committed another throwing error to first base on his first batter faced in the eighth inning, allowing TJ Friedl to reach first and eventually score the Reds’ third run of the game.
Those two errors led to two costly runs, demonstrating exactly how important a tight defense can be.
“The Hurter error and the Gipson-Long error both were tough because of where we were in the game,” Hinch said.
The three fielding errors were uncharacteristic for the Tigers, who have MLB’s seventh-fewest errors (29) and as a team are 10th in Statcast’s Fielding Run Value among all MLB teams. But even Javier Báez, a gold glove shortstop and arguably the team’s tightest defender, committed a fielding error in the fourth and could have been charged with another on a misplay in the third.
There’s no guarantees that had the pitchers made cleaner throws or McKinstry had kicked off a double play that the Tigers would have won. But those misplays didn’t help, with Hinch not used to seeing such inconsistent defense from his club.
“We obviously are better at executing those plays. This is not our identity,” Hinch said. “We should have played better today to give ourselves a better chance to win.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 3 errors and a botched double-play sink Tigers in series finale
