CINCINNATI – The Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Redsentered a rain delay before the top of the seventh inning, with the Reds inching closer to a comeback.
The rain delay ended after one hour, 49 minutes.
The final three innings featured a storm of a different sort, with a combined nine runs scored.
The Tigers lost the lead and regained the lead in the span of 10 minutes during the bottom of the seventh and top of the eighth, then lost it again in the ninth in a 9-8 win loss to the Reds on Friday, April 24, in the first of three games in the series at Great American Ball Park.
Nathaniel Lowe hit a walk-off two-run home run off right-handed reliever Kenley Jansen with two outs in the ninth.
The game ended at 11:57 p.m.
The Tigers (14-13) and Reds (17-9) clash again Saturday (7:15 p.m., Fox). The starter for the Reds is right-hander Brady Singer, who has a 3.16 ERA over 77 innings in 14 starts against the Tigers in his seven-year MLB career.
Before Lowe’s walk-off home run, the Tigers surrendered four runs in the bottom of the seventh for a 7-6 deficit, only to score three runs in the top of the eighth for an 8-7 lead.
Right-handed reliever Will Vest struggled in the seventh. He walked Dane Myers on four pitches, then gave up a two-run home run to Matt McLain on a sixth-pitch fastball.
It was McLain’s second homer of the game.
And it tied the game, 5-5.
With two outs, the Tigers replaced Vest with left-handed reliever Brant Hurter for a favorable matchup with Lowe in hopes of stranding a runner on second base. Hurter induced a ground ball, but second baseman Javier Báez – who began the game at shortstop – threw the ball away.
The throwing error from Báez put the Reds ahead, 6-5. The mistake also allowed the Reds to extend their lead to 7-5, as Tyler Stephenson followed with an RBI double.
The momentum shifted again in the eighth.
That’s when the Tigers rallied with Spencer Torkelson’s solo home run and Kerry Carpenter’s two-run home run, both against right-handed reliever Tony Santillan.
Torkelson pulled a middle-in fastball for his third homer in as many games (after none in his first 23), while Carpenter pulled an up-and-in fastball for his sixth homer in 24 games.
Those swings made it an 8-7 Tigers lead.
There were several key moments for the Tigers in the early innings.
A left-on-left home run from Riley Greene in the second, a home run from Báez in a 3-0 count in the third, a leaping catch from Greene to help left-hander Framber Valdez escape trouble after back-to-back walks with two outs in the third.
Valdez struggled to throw strikes.
His 52.8% strike rate (on 89 pitches) contributed to five walks.
That problem hurt Valdez but didn’t doom the Tigers.
Valdez allowed two runs on four hits and five walks with four strikeouts across 4⅓ innings, giving him a 3.41 ERA across six starts. The Reds threatened but didn’t score until the fifth inning with McLain’s first of two big swings.
It started with a walk to Myers.
After that, Valdez fell behind 3-0 in the count to McLain, forcing him to work his way back into the strike zone. Once that happened, McLain crushed Valdez’s up-and-away sinker in the zone for a two-run home run.
The homer cut the Tigers’ lead to 5-2.
The Reds slashed the Tigers’ lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning, when Lowe blasted a solo home run off right-handed reliever Kyle Finnegan’s middle-middle splitter as the rain got underway.
Luckily, the Tigers provided a cushion for Valdez.
Facing left-hander Andrew Abbott, Greene golfed a first-pitch sweeper at the bottom of the zone for a solo home run with one out in the second inning. The 25-year-old has 79 home runs in his 513-game MLB career – with only 11 of them against lefties.
This left-on-left homer put the Tigers ahead, 1-0.
Greene – responsible for the first of five runs – has stepped up as the Tigers’ best position player over his past 13 games, hitting .415 (17-for-41) with all three of his home runs, nine walks and 12 strikeouts, spanning 50 plate appearances.
He hit just .204 in his first 14 games.
The Tigers added three runs for a 4-0 advantage in the third inning, thanks to Báez’s solo home run and Matt Vierling’s RBI double (after Gleyber Torres walked and Kevin McGonigle singled).
The homer from Báez came in a 3-0 count.
He swung at a middle-middle fastball from Abbott and put it over the wall in center – marking the second homer of his 1,369-game MLB career on a 3-0 pitch.
The first happened in July 2020.
It also occurred at Great American Ball Park.
The Tigers made it 5-0 in the fourth inning.
That’s when Jahmai Jones – a right-handed hitter with a track record of success against left-handed pitchers – took advantage of an almost-out-of-gas Abbott.
He ripped a middle-middle fastball for an RBI single.
Abbott allowed five runs on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts across four innings, throwing 89 pitches. The Tigers put runners on base in every inning against him.
In the third inning, Kevin McGonigle hit a double to reach base safely for his 22nd start in a row. He became the first Tigers rookie to do so since Austin Jackson reached safely in 25 consecutive starts in 2010.
McGonigle is hitting .320 with a .911 OPS in 26 games.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers struck by lightning in 9th inning of loss to Cincinnati