BOSTON — The visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway can best be described as cozy, the product of a historic ballpark with limited room. As the booming sounds of the Red Sox’s celebration leaked in from the concourse outside, the Tigers would’ve been excused for feeling like the walls were caving in, literally and figuratively.
While Boston reveled in clinching its first postseason berth in four years, Detroit’s path to a playoff return narrowed ever tighter with Friday’s 4-3 walk-off loss. And as the Tigers sat silently in the clubhouse and endured the echoes of revelry from outside, clear enough to pick out individual voices, it was fair to wonder how much more they can endure.
It’s not just that Detroit has lost nine of its past 10, or that three losses have come with the Tigers tied or leading in the ninth, or that Friday’s loss came barely 24 hours after they exhaled upon ending their eight-game losing streak. It’s how Friday evening unfolded in Cleveland.
Two days after the Tigers’ chances at their first division title since 2014 seemed dead, the fates presented Detroit with a chance to retake the top spot in the AL Central. While the Tigers built a 3-0 lead on Red Sox starter Kyle Harrison and rode Casey Mize through his best start since the All-Star break, the first-place Guardians fell to the Rangers at Progressive Field. The door was open for Detroit to change the narrative of the past two weeks.
Like the scoring chances the Tigers had to add onto Friday’s lead, opportunity vanished. And the narrative that has taken on novel-like proportions gained another harrowing chapter.
The Tigers and Guardians remain level at 86-74, with Cleveland holding the tiebreaker. Detroit continues to hold the third and final AL Wild Card spot by a half-game over Houston (85-74).
“All that matters right now is the scoreboard,” Mize said after 6 1/3 quality innings and eight strikeouts. “We lost. So yeah, I’m frustrated. But we have another opportunity tomorrow to go win. For now, it’s a tough loss for sure.”
The Tigers took their game to the Red Sox early. Parker Meadows laid down his first bunt single since 2023, tucking a slow roller just inside the third-base line in front of Boston third baseman Alex Bregman to load the bases with nobody out in the third. Javier Báez singled through the right side and Jahmai Jones tucked a two-run double inside the left-field line.
It was the big inning the Tigers needed. And yet, like a horror movie that leaves early clues of the climax, Spencer Torkelson’s popout and Riley Greene’s lineout with the bases loaded seemed to foreshadow danger ahead. It was the second time in four innings the Tigers left the bases full, part of nine runners left on base over the first five innings.
“I have to have better ABs in that situation,” Greene said. “We had some chances, and we didn’t come through. It sucks, but it’s the game of baseball.”
For six-plus innings, Mize did his best to make the run support stand, flummoxing the Red Sox’s lineup in his best outing since the All-Star break. He was not only productive, he was animated, a conscious effort to lift his team after a late-night flight from Cleveland to Boston. He bounded off the mound after striking out the side in order in the fifth inning, then let out a yell after fanning Bregman on a 95 mph sinker to end the sixth.
“I haven’t pitched in the postseason, so this is probably the biggest start of my career,” Mize said. “It’s just go from pitch one. I tried to rise to the occasion.”
Even that could only last so long. Cedanne Rafaela just missed a game-tying two-run homer in the seventh, but still chased Mize with a double off the Green Monster to set up a Nathaniel Lowe sacrifice fly. Carlos Narváez’s leadoff single, Dillon Dingler’s errant throw on pinch-runner Nate Eaton’s steal and Jarren Duran’s RBI single tied the game off Kyle Finnegan.
Justyn-Henry Malloy, who hit a walk-off single off Aroldis Chapman on May 14 at Comerica Park, got him for a leadoff double in the ninth. But when Chapman fanned Wenceel Pérez and Torkelson to strand pinch-runner Zach McKinstry at third, the plot seemed predictable. Rafaela’s RBI triple off Tommy Kahnle just eluded Parker Meadows’ leap at the center-field fence, in another cruel twist.
“We’re trying to help this team win. We’re all trying,” Greene said. “Are we pressing? Maybe. But that’s coming from wanting to help. It is what it is.”
They’ll get the Red Sox coming off a celebration. But they’ll have their own anguish to counter.
“We have to flush tonight, we have to show up tomorrow and win,” Greene said. “That’s what it comes down to.”
