'We hung in there': Tigers chip away, but can't muster big hit in 4-3 loss to Giants
The Tigers chipped away at a 4-0 hole after five innings in San Francisco on Tuesday night, but couldn't get the big hit they needed in a 4-3 loss to the Giants.
Miguel Cabrera had an RBI single in the sixth, and Jeimer Candelario followed that up with a double in the seventh that brought Willi Castro home.
Castro did his part in the next inning with a base hit that scored Riley Greene, but Detroit ended up leaving the bases loaded as Camilo Doval came in from the bullpen to register the final four outs for San Francisco.
"We just hung in there," manager AJ Hinch said after the game to a pool of reporters. "(Carlos) Rodon was really good. We didn't really get a ton of opportunities. We missed one or two against him, and that's hard to do against a good pitcher like that.
"They won the big at-bats. So, it's tough to chip away and not get rewarded for it, but I did like our effort."
The Giants jumped out to an early lead after Evan Longoria tagged Tarik Skubal with a two-out, two-RBI single to center field in the first inning.
Skubal was pulled in the fifth with two outs and runners on first and second. Wily Peralta came on in relief, but threw a wild pitch and gave up a two-out, two-run base hit to Mike Yastrzemski, before getting out of the inning two batters later.
"I just think he's carrying one pitch to the next pitch and that's not his MO, usually," Hinch said of Skubal. "He's getting frustrated with himself when he doesn't execute (and) the at-bats are getting longer and longer. ... (He) just has to stay in grind mode until he can figure some things out and execute his pitches.
"He'll flash some stuff that we've seen that's really good, but it looks like he's battling himself a little bit pitch-by-pitch, instead of being able to reset."
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It wasn't the most efficient outing for the Giants, as they left 16 runners on base, but those two singles proved to be enough. In fact, the Tigers outhit San Francisco 10-7, but left 13 runners on base.
Greene, who batted cleanup, went 2-for-3 and registered a walk.
"Mentally he's in a really good place because he's just taking it at-bat to at-bat and doing his best to fend off some big-league pitching that he's never seen before," Hinch said.
"(He's) not going to see a lot of lefties better than Carlos Rodon, and he hung in there and got a knock the other way, a couple of them.
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"Every at-bat, every game, every situation, every new pitcher that he faces, it'll build some confidence for him. He walks up there with a pretty good plan and he's executing it at a pretty decent level. It's why we love him."
Another bright spot for Detroit was Cabrera, who logged two hits and surpassed Rickey Henderson for 25th all-time in career hits.
rsilva@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Rich_Silva18