Tigers turn Toronto’s seventh-inning rescue into a 6-5 Blue Jays letdown at Rogers Centre

A fast start, then a stalled advantage

Toronto did the early work. In the first inning, Alejandro Kirk singled to left to bring home Brett Bateman and move George Springer to third, then Springer came home on a Troy Melton wild pitch for a 2-0 lead. It was a compact inning, but it also hinted that Detroit’s starter was vulnerable: Melton needed 76 pitches to get through 2.2 innings, allowing five hits and four walks.

That should have been the platform for a bigger Blue Jays night. Springer finished with two runs and two walks, Kirk went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, and Toronto as a team forced 159 pitches. But after that first-inning damage, the Blue Jays stayed quiet from the second through the sixth, and the game remained close enough for one swing of momentum to matter.

Detroit deserves credit for settling the game after Melton’s rocky opening. Beau Brieske covered 2.0 scoreless innings, Tyler Holton added 1.1 scoreless, and the Tigers gave their lineup time to find a way back. On the other side, Jose Soriano was giving Toronto exactly the kind of start that usually wins: 6.1 innings, five strikeouts, one walk, and very little trouble until the seventh.

One inning changed hands twice

Then came the seventh, and it bent entirely out of Toronto’s control. Dillon Dingler singled to left to score Gleyber Torres and send Riley Greene to second. Max Clark followed with a double to left that scored both Dingler and Greene, and Spencer Torkelson kept it moving with another double to left to bring Clark home. In a matter of three run-scoring hits, a 2-0 Blue Jays lead had become a 4-2 Tigers lead.

What makes the night sting more for Toronto is that the Blue Jays answered immediately and forcefully. Kazuma Okamoto turned the bottom of the seventh back around with a three-run homer to left, measured at 390 feet, scoring Springer and Kirk with him. Just like that, Toronto had reclaimed the game at 5-4, and Rogers Centre had the kind of scoreline that normally feels rescued.

Instead, it was only a pause in Detroit’s comeback. The line score shows the Tigers scratched out one run in the eighth and another in the ninth, while Toronto was held scoreless in both innings. That is the entire shape of the result: Toronto built the first lead, Detroit authored the biggest inning, Toronto landed the loudest reply, and Detroit still owned the finish.

Our take: the Blue Jays had enough to win, and that is the problem

Our take: Detroit’s win was built less on volume than on timing. The Tigers did not hit a home run, and their decisive push came from sequencing in that seventh inning, with Dingler, Clark and Torkelson stacking run-scoring at-bats back to back. Still, there is an obvious correction available even in victory. A game that required late runs to complete the comeback was made harder by Melton’s four walks and wild pitch in 2.2 innings, and by Kyle Finnegan’s seventh inning, when he allowed three runs and the Okamoto homer. Cleaner strike-throwing early and steadier late work would make this kind of win less narrow.

Our take: Toronto will look at this as a missed chance because the ingredients of a win were all there. The Blue Jays got five runs, eight hits, five walks, a three-run homer from Okamoto, and a steady 6.1 innings from Soriano. When an opposing starter lasts only 2.2 innings and throws 76 pitches, there is room to ask for more separation than a 2-0 start produced. And when a lineup creates that much traffic, losing after taking a 5-4 lead in the seventh points to the final third of the game, where Detroit posted four runs across the last three innings and Toronto had no answer. That is not a mystery loss. It is a sharp reminder that in MLB, a good opening and one big answer are not always enough.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Kirk singled to left, Bateman scored, Springer to third.

2. 1st Inning

   Springer scored on Melton wild pitch, Kirk to second on wild pitch by Melton.

3. 1st Inning

   Springer scored on Melton wild pitch, Kirk to second.

4. 7th Inning

   Dingler singled to left, Torres scored, Greene to second.

5. 7th Inning

   Clark doubled to left, Dingler scored and Greene scored.

6. 7th Inning

   Torkelson doubled to left, Clark scored.

7. 7th Inning

   Okamoto homered to left (390 feet), Springer scored and Kirk scored.

8. 8th Inning

   Callahan singled to left, McGonigle scored, Greene to second.

9. 9th Inning

   McKinstry scored on error, Lee safe at first on error by pitcher Varland.