It’s the little things right now for the Detroit Tigers. And all the little things are adding up to losses.
The Tigers fell 3-1 to the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday, May 21, to finish off a four-game sweep and mark their season-high sixth loss in a row. It was a familiar type of loss, with the Tigers wasting a solid performance from their starting pitcher with little production from a struggling lineup.
Five of their six losses during the streak have come with the Tigers allowing four runs or fewer:
- Losing 2-1 in 10 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays on May 16.
- Losing 4-1 to the Jays the very next day.
- Falling 4-3 to the Guardians on May 19.
- Losing 3-2 in 10 innings (again) to the Guardians on Wednesday.
- Thursday’s 3-1 affair, the latest low-scoring loss.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch correctly pointed out that a lot of these games were winnable, but that the Tigers haven’t been stacking positive outcomes to lead to runs.
“Baseball is funny where it’s just a small little thing, one way or the other, that plays out big over the course of the game,” he said. “Right now, we’re wearing it, because you we’re either not creating it or not getting a break. And either way, it’s a bad feeling.”
Translation – a bit of bad luck, some bad timing and a lot of bad execution currently has the Tigers 11 games under .500.
Hinch is right about the small moments, some being so tiny that it’s hard to imagine they would impact an entire game so profoundly.
Let’s take a look at three of them from Thursday’s loss:
Dillon Dingler’s double
A double on the third at-bat of the game for the Tigers should be a positive event, right? And though it was, it could have been so much more impactful.
Dingler finished 2-for-3 with a double, home run and walk, providing the only two extra-base hits for the Tigers on the day. His double came in the first inning with Kevin McGonigle on first base after a one-out single, with Dingler smacking a pitch 349 feet to left field for the third-hardest hit of the day.
Left fielder Ángel Martínez hustled to the landing spot and appeared to get his glove on the ball, but it fell to the ground to register the hit for Dingler. Per Statcast, the hit would have been a home run in six out of 30 parks, and if the weather was just a little bit warmer, it might have even left the yard at Comerica Park.
But because Martínez got his body in front of it, McGonigle needed to pause on the basepaths, waiting to see if he needed to retreat to first base. Instead, he had to stop at third, unable to score on Dingler’s long double.
None of McGonigle, Dingler or Tigers third-base coach Joey Cora made mistakes on the play. It was just a bit of good luck that Martínez didn’t catch the ball and a bit of bad luck that McGonigle had to hold up.
The real issue is what happened after, with left fielder Riley Greene striking out, designated hitter Jahmai Jones walking and first baseman Spencer Torkelson flying out to right field to bail Cleveland starting pitcher Joey Cantillo out of an early jam without a run.
“You need the knockout punch,” Hinch said. “It’s just that empty feeling when you get [Cantillo] close to 40 [pitches] and all of a sudden their backs are against the wall a little bit as opposed to the letdown that happens after missing an opportunity.”
Daniel Schneemann’s double
In the top of the third inning with the game scoreless, Tigers pitcher Casey Mize gave up a hard two-out double to Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio, bringing third baseman Daniel Schneemann up to bat.
Schneemann then hit a fly ball to right field that, per Statcast, had a hit probability of .020. Right fielder Wenceel Pérez was shaded towards center field and couldn’t reach the ball, letting it drop for an RBI double and the first run of the game.
The lead.#GuardsBallpic.twitter.com/YkWOubPFWi
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 21, 2026
It may have seemed like a bad defensive play at first, but because of Schneeman’s batted-ball profile, Pérez was stationed exactly where he was supposed to be, according to Hinch.
“We position him where we do based on data,” said Mize. “It’s frustrating when it’s not caught, but we were shifted because he normally does not hit the ball there.”
What looked like a catchable pitch off the bat turned into the game’s most important play. Instead of the Tigers getting out of a scoreless inning, Rocchio scored, Schneemann ended up on second base and later scampered to home on a José Ramírez single on a Mize splitter that dropped way below the strike zone.
“He’s José Ramírez, he’s gonna get to some pitches like that,” said Mize.
The Tigers couldn’t take advantage of their good fortune in the first inning, while Cleveland took a small opening in the third and turned it into runs.
Patrick Bailey’s home run
The hardest-hit ball of the day came from arguably the weakest hitter on the field, with Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning to extend Cleveland’s lead to 3-0.
It’s hard to overstate how unlikely of a hit this was. By Statcast’s batting run value, Bailey was the fifth-worst hitter in all of MLB in 2025 and is having an even worse season at the plate in 2026, hitting a putrid .140 with just three extra-base hits over 108 plate appearances.
But with relief pitcher Burch Smith falling behind 2-0 to the catcher, Smith tried to land a 92.6 mph fastball down the middle for strike zone, only to watch the ball hit the wall above the yellow line signifying a homer in right-center field.
Patrick Bailey hits his first homer as a Guardian!#GuardsBallpic.twitter.com/QWeg9GRaU2
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 21, 2026
Maybe if Smith was pitching to Ramírez he would deserve a reprimand for his location, but against someone who has combined to hit eight home runs in his last two seasons, it was an understandable decision.
It was also the latest rake in the face for a Tigers team that has failed to score four runs in nine of its last 10 games, something that Mize said cannot be the case for a team with playoff aspirations.
“We can’t treat it like it’s tight,” he said. “If we feel like the game’s over and we’re down 2-0, that’s a really tough posture to play from.”
The season is far from over for Detroit, who hasn’t even played one-third of its games yet. If the Tigers go 31-20 over their next 51 games – a .608 winning percentage roughly equivalent to their pre-All-Star break performance last season, and a mark this roster is capable of matching, especially with the potential returns of starters Tarik Skubal and Troy Melton – they’ll be right at .500 in late July and maybe even competing for a playoff spot in an American League with few postseason locks outside of the AL East.
But as center fielder Matt Vierling points out, the Tigers have failed to create any offensive momentum in this stretch, letting the little things pile up into a six-game losing streak.
“We’re doing everything we can,” said Vierling. “I understand that we expected to be better than this, and we’re just frustrated overall. But all we can do is show up tomorrow and try to win a ballgame.”
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How bad luck and worse execution has Tigers 11 games under .500