Less than their best: Sloppy mistakes cost Cubs in low-scoring loss to Tigers
DETROIT — The best of both leagues matched up in Motown on Friday, and the difference in Detroit's 3-1 victory over the Cubs was precision engineering.
The Cubs cost themselves runs, probably gave up one needlessly, while the Tigers were nearly perfect, with several stellar defensive plays.
“If anything, it kind of highlights a lot of the stuff we've been doing to win baseball games,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We made a mistake on the bases that likely cost us some runs. When it's this close and it's tough to score, those things tend to come back to hurt you.”
The Cubs collected a season-high 9 hits off Detroit ace left-hander Tarik Skubal and ended his 21-game scoreless streak. But the lack of clutch hits spoiled a nice pitching performance from Ben Brown.
The most glaring mistake happened in the fifth inning of a scoreless tie. The Cubs began with a Pete Crow-Armstrong single and Dansby Swanson double.
Detroit left fielder Riley Greene had a long run to reach Swanson's hit. Crow-Armstrong got the stop sign from third base coach Quintin Berry, then a go, then a stop. He rounded the bag too far, slipped when he reversed course and was tagged out.
A master craftsman doesn't blame his tools, and Crow-Armstrong refused to put any fault on Berry.
“The play was in front of me for a long time,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Picked up Q when the ball was behind me, and if anything, we were on the exact same page the whole time. I just saw Riley get that before I got to the track and they made a good play.”
With nobody out, that would have been a good time to play it safe. Nico Hoerner followed with a flyout to center, deep enough to score the run easily. Justin Turner then ended the inning with a strikeout.
“Probably if Q could do it over, I think he'd just try to keep his eyes on Pete a little bit,” Counsell said. “You've got to keep eyes on both (runners). He thought there was maybe a chance to score if Pete's coming, and Pete saw it the other way, right?”
In the bottom of the fifth, Brown should have retired the side in order, but a two-out grounder by Javy Baez went for a hit when it bounced off Matt Shaw's glove at third. Parker Meadows and Gleyber Torres followed with singles to score the game's first run.
Had Shaw let the ball travel to Swanson at shortstop, it appeared likely Baez would have been thrown out.
“Yeah, (Shaw) doesn't have eyes behind him,” Counsell said. “That's the tough play for a third baseman, where you're cutting off the shortstop.”
The Cubs tied it in the sixth with doubles by Shaw and Kyle Tucker. Shaw was caught stealing ahead of singles by Ian Happ and Tucker in the eighth, then Seiya Suzuki's deep fly to right was caught at the top of the wall by Detroit's Kerry Carpenter to end the inning.
The Tigers took a 2-1 lead on Spencer Torkelson's home run off Brown in the sixth, then Jahmai Jones, in the first at-bat of his Tigers career, homered in the eighth off Genesis Cabrera.
The Cubs used an opener for Brown last week against the Reds and he responded with 6 scoreless innings. This time, Counsell chose not to use an opener, and Brown matched Skubal pitch for pitch until the home run.
“We've been working on a lot of really cool stuff on the mental side, and having an extra week to double down on it is really cool,” Brown said. “So just going to continue to do that.”
Brown threw the hardest pitch of his MLB career, a 98.8 mph four-seam fastball to Colt Keith in the second inning. Brown attributed the velocity increase to feeling healthy. He hit 98.6 mph three times early last year before going out with a neck injury.
“I think that was the definitely the most high-leverage, intense game I've ever pitched in my life,” Brown said. “I've never been in the playoffs, but I can't imagine it feeling much different.”