Tigers' pursuit of .500 hits another snag in loss to Guardians

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Aug 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — The day started with the news that All-Star left fielder Riley Greene was going on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain.

It ended with a string of zeros on the scoreboard and an important series against the Central Division rival Cleveland Guardians knotted at 1-1.

The Tigers’ three-game win streak and their 100-day quest to get back to .500 were stopped Wednesday night in a 6-4 loss to the Guardians at Comerica Park.

With the win, the Guardians, who have won seven of eight against the Tigers this season, clinch the season series. The Tigers (59-61) fall four games in the loss column behind the division-leading White Sox.

This game started out promisingly. The Tigers answered a two-run top of the first with a pair of two-out runs delivered by Spencer Torkelson, who drove a two-strike pitch into the right-center gap, scoring Dillon Dingler and Hao-Yu Lee, who extended the inning with a double.

And when Gleyber Torres clipped a sweeper from lefty starter Foster Griffin to leadoff the third inning and sent it 421 feet deep into the seats in left-center, the Tigers held a 3-2 lead.

Not for long.

It was another rope-and-dope outing for Tigers’ lefty Framber Valdez.

He took quite a few shots over the course of his six innings, not one clean inning, but he stayed on his feet.

He was staggered in a first inning that included two hits, a walk, a hit batter and a balk. That the Guardians came out of it with just two runs seemed like a minor victory.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Valdez induced a double-play ball out of Jo Adell, which scored one run. Angel Martinez followed with a double to score the second.

Valdez kept the scoreboard clean from the second through the fourth, working around five base runners. He was getting the Guardians to hit the ball on the ground a lot — nine ground-ball outs in the first four innings.

But he walked Jose Ramirez on four pitches with one out in the fifth and then left a 0-1 change-up up just enough for Adell to swat it over the fence in left. His 18th homer, and second in two games against the Tigers in this series, put the Guardians up 4-3.

Valdez ended up walking five with the one hit-batsman, giving up the six hits and needing 102 pitches to get two outs deep into the sixth. The average exit velocity on 20 balls put in play by the Cleveland hitters was a robust 92.7 mph.

Still, he left the game with the Tigers in striking range, down a run.

The Guardians spread the game in seventh. Martinez, who had three hits, doubled with one out against right-hander Ty Madden.

Lefty Enmanuel De Jesus entered and struck out lefty pinch-hitter Nathaniel Lowe, but Angel Genao, jammed on a two-strike fastball, managed to fight it off and roll it inside the bag at first base for an RBI double.

Austin Hedges followed with a single to make it a three-run game.

That was all the cushion the vaunted back end of the Guardians’ bullpen needed. Colin Holderman, Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith, who earned a four-out save.

The Tigers scratched a run off Gaddis in the eighth. Kevin McGonigle walked and moved to third on a two-out single by Zach McKinstry. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt went to Smith against rookie Max Clark.

He threw a splitter in the dirt that bounced in front of catcher Austin Hedges. Hedges couldn’t find the ball and instead of retrieving it, Smith merely pointed. McGonigle alertly bolted for home and scored.

Smith finished the inning by winning an impressive 12-pitch battle with Clark, finally getting him with a 100.7-mph heater. But the elongated at-bat might've fatigued him.

Singles by Javier Báez and Torres had the Tigers in business with one out in the ninth. But Smith, with his pitch count exceeding his season-high 33, struck out Dingler and got McGonigle to ground out.