Sinking Tigers fall out of first place with another loss to Guardians

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Sep 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CLEVELAND — It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day.

The Tigers lost their eighth game in a row Wednesday night, beaten by the Cleveland Guardians for the fifth consecutive time, 5-1 at Progressive Field, pushing them a full game behind the Guardians, who also own the tie-breaker, in the Central Division.

Aspects of these losses are starting to feel gloomily familiar.

The Tigers, for the second consecutive game, broke on top and put early pressure on the Guardians’ starting pitcher — Tanner Bibee this time.

Singles by Dillon Dingler and Trey Sweeney set up a sacrifice fly by Parker Meadows in the third inning.

But they left two runners on in that inning and two more in the fourth, allowing Bibee to settle in. The Tigers didn’t put another runner in scoring position.

They were 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, 0 for 3 Wednesday and had no scoring opportunities in the final three innings either night.

And the Guardians’ offense did just enough to win. Same story.

Tigers starter Jack Flaherty made two mistakes, one physical and one mental, and both were costly.

With a runner at third and one out in the third inning, he caught too much of the plate with a first-pitch knuckle-curve to George Valera that was driven just over the wall, and beyond the leap of center fielder Parker Meadows, for a two-run home run.

Flaherty pitched well. He was dotting his four-seam fastball (93-96 mph) consistently at the bottom of the strike zone, which set up his slider and knuckle-curve.

He ended up with six strikeouts.

But in the fifth, he gave up a one-out single to Brayan Rocchio. That wasn’t the mistake. The mistake was not holding him on. Flaherty was intensely focused on the batter, Steven Kwan, and Rocchio got running start and stole second base easily.

Flaherty fell behind Kwan 3-0 and then threw back-to-back 93-mph four-seamers. The first one was a called strike, the second one was laced for an RBI single.

That ended Flaherty’s night.

One other familiar aspect: The late blow-up inning.

This time it was the seventh.

Rafael Montero was summoned for the bottom of the Guardians’ order and he didn’t record an out. After a leadoff walk to Daniel Schneemann, Montero got C.J. Kayfus to hit a high foul pop up behind the plate.

Catcher Dingler dropped it and Kayfus, given a second life, singled.

Montero walked Rocchio to load the bases and manager AJ Hinch then went to Will Vest against the top of the order. Vest got Kwan on a shallow fly and struck out Valera.

And he got two strikes on Jose Ramirez. Ramirez ripped a 1-2 pitch, 102 mph off his bat. The ball tipped off second baseman Gleyber Torres’ glove and it ended up a two-run double.

A four-run deficit these days, especially for the Tigers against the Guardians’ bullpen, felt insurmountable. They've not scored against the Guardians' bullpen in the last four games, covering 13 innings.

The challenge for the Tigers seems less now about the division title and more a fight to preserve a wild-card spot. That's what losing 11 of 12 and 20 of 27 will do.