The Detroit Tigers will be out to extend their winning streak to seven games and complete a three-game sweep of the host Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon.
The Tigers (72-79) clinched the series with the Blue Jays (75-77) with a 10-1 victory on Tuesday night.
The result put a dent in the Blue Jays’ playoff aspirations, dropping them two games behind the Cleveland Guardians in the chase for the third and final American League wild-card berth.
The Guardians also are only a half-game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central after a 7-6 walkoff win over Chicago on Tuesday night.
Detroit is 4 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the wild-card race, and the Texas Rangers are only 1 1/2 games out.
The Tigers are scheduled to start Keider Montero (9-8, 3.55 ERA) on Wednesday. The right-hander is 0-2 with an ERA of 9.64 in two career starts against Toronto.
The Blue Jays will start right-hander Max Scherzer (2-8, 6.38). The former Tiger is 2-3 with a 3.34 ERA in five career starts against the Tigers.
Toronto tried to get by with another bullpen day on Tuesday and did get a nice outing from Brendan Cellucci, who had three strikeouts in 1 2/3 scoreless innings in his major league debut.
But Michael Lorenzen allowed four runs in the fourth inning — three on a Spencer Torkelson home run — and a run in the fifth.
It was another game of the hitters not coming through for the Blue Jays. They loaded the bases in the third on three walks by Drew Anderson, but Alejandro Kirk grounded out to end the threat.
“We obviously didn’t get anything going in terms of hitting the ball hard offensively,” manager John Schneider said. “You have to do that, first and foremost on a day you’re trying to piece the bullpen together. We didn’t score; that’s what it boils down to.”
Toronto has 10 games left amid its wild-card hopes.
“We’re in the same spot we were in a week or two ago,” second baseman Ernie Clement said. “We are still in it, and we have all the confidence in the world in this group. We’re just going to keep showing up and going after it.”
Torkelson went 2-for-4 for the Tigers on Tuesday. He had a double, a walk and his first stolen base of the season to go with his homer.
“I think the team’s doing a great job controlling what we can control, and that’s just win the day,” Torkelson said. “We’re trying to win every single game, and that’s what we can control. Can’t really scoreboard watch, but just trying to win every single day.”
The Tigers took advantage of two miscues by Toronto catcher Kirk in the eighth, including catcher’s interference and an errant pickoff throw that hit the runner and skittered down the left-field line. Torkelson made a throwing error on a grounder to first in the ninth, but no harm was done.
“I know we made the error at the end, and we’re not going to be perfect,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “You don’t have to play perfectly, but it’s nice to see our guys continue to take advantage of a few mistakes. Our guys won the series tonight by coming out and taking command of the game and completing the game.”
–Field Level Media
