Detroit Tigers rally for 8-7 win over Rays, thanks to Jeimer Candelario, Robbie Grossman

The Detroit Tigers showed another example of their resiliency Sunday.

With two outs, two balls, two strikes and trailing by two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jeimer Candelario demolished a slider from Tampa Bay Rays reliever Andrew Kittredge. The ball carried 421 feet, soaring over the right-field wall to tie the game at seven runs.

It was Candelario's second home run of the game.

"We have a good team," Candelario said. "We know we can play baseball games the right way. We're always expecting to get a win, no matter who we're playing against."

The Tigers capitalized on his efforts in the bottom of the 11th, earning an 8-7 victory over the American League-leading Rays in the series finale at Comerica Park. Robbie Grossman ended the marathon by drawing a bases-loaded, two-out walk off J.P. Feyereisen. He has four walk-off RBIs this season.

"It's a big win for us," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "We had to come back not once but twice in a hard-fought win. There is some character on this team and there's some fight in this team. We did a nice job of hanging in there all the way till the end. ... At the end, we outplayed them. It felt good to come out with a series win against a good team."

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Before the Tigers (68-76) walked it off, Kyle Funkhouser pitched a scoreless top of the 11th. Walks from Victor Reyes and Akil Baddoo juiced the bases against Feyereisen. (Niko Goodrum started out at second as the free runner in extra innings.)

And with two outs, Grossman took a walk for the win.

"I just wanted to get a good pitch to drive and something I could barrel," Grossman said. "The ball four, I was swinging 3-1. I wanted another chance to get a good pitch to hit, but I saw it as a ball out of the hand. It wasn't a quality pitch to swing at. Thankfully, it went my way."

The Tigers fell behind by two runs in the 10th inning because of Yandy Diaz's RBI double off lefty reliever Gregory Soto. He scored Ji-Man Choi — the Rays' free runner — for a 6-5 lead. Kevin Kiermaier's groundout plated Nelson Cruz, whom Hinch had intentionally walked, to make it 7-5 Rays.

"This team will continue to stay hungry," Hinch said. "We've proven to ourselves, even before we've had to prove it to those around us, we're going to keep fighting."

Attacking Cisnero

The Tigers carried a one-run lead from the fourth inning until the eighth. They jumped ahead 2-1 in the fourth on a solo home run from Candelario, who has 14 home runs and 40 doubles over 134 games this season.

Hinch had his high-leverage relievers well-rested and lined up perfectly: Michael Fulmer in the seventh inning, Jose Cisnero in the eighth and Soto — the de facto closer — in the ninth.

But the Rays spoiled Hinch's plan by chasing Cisnero in the eighth.

"His body's not firing at 100%," Hinch said about Cisnero. "I don't want to say he looks tired. He's just not firing. He's not moving with his quick twitch. It doesn't look like the arm is as quick. There's a general malaise with him right now, for whatever reason. We're grinding him and riding him pretty hard. It looked like he was a little out of it with his execution."

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The bullpen was positioned to dominate behind three scoreless innings from left-handed starter Tarik Skubal and three innings of one-run ball from righty reliever Jose Urena. Protecting a one-run lead, Fulmer completed a scoreless seventh.

Cisnero faced four batters, all of which reached safely. Austin Meadows started with a leadoff single and scored on Phillips' go-ahead two-run home run over the left-center wall. 

After Phillips put the Rays up 3-2, the next two batters reached against Cisnero. Having seen enough, Hinch replaced him with Alex Lange. A double from Diaz — deflected by Candelario at third base — pushed home two more runs for Tampa Bay's 5-2 margin. 

All four runs were charged to Cisnero.

"We're just as good as these guys," Grossman said about his team's comeback. "It's just how we go about our at-bats, how we go about our defense and how we go about pitching. When we play our game, we can play with anyone."

Fighting back

Against Rays reliever David Robertson in the eighth, the Tigers posted three consecutive singles — Akil Baddoo, Jonathan Schoop and Grossman — to load the bases for Miguel Cabrera. He singled up the middle, driving in two runs and cutting the Tigers' deficit to 5-4.

Cabrera, replaced by Derek Hill on the bases, is 25 hits away from No. 3,000.

Heads-up running from Hill and a wise decision from third base coach Ramon Santiago evened the score at five. Harold Castro's fly ball to deep right should have simply advanced Hill to third base, but Brett Phillips made a throwing error.

Phillips' throw to the cutoff man traveled high, bouncing off leaping shortstop Taylor Walls' glove. When second baseman Joey Wendle tried to clean up the mess, he fumbled the ball. There was no throw to be made, so Hill turned on his speed and crossed home plate with a head-first slide.

"Between second and third, he gave Santi a chance to react and himself a chance to react to a misplay," Hinch said. "They don't make many mistakes. When they made their one mistake, we capitalize on it because Derek gave himself a chance to do something unique. Coming from second to third, that's not necessarily something you're expecting, but giving yourself a chance by getting to third base as fast as possible was the key to getting him in to score."

Skubal shoves with restrictions

Skubal made MLB history by becoming the first rookie with 22 consecutive outings with at least four strikeouts. Skubal struck out six batters over his three innings — increasing his season-long total to 160 punchouts over 139 innings.

Skubal was previously tied with Shane McClanahan (2021) and Jake Odorizzi (2014) for the rookie record of 21 outings. His 22 straight is the longest streak for any Tigers pitcher since Justin Verlander's 28-game stretch from July 29, 2015, to April 5, 2016.

Working under innings restrictions, Skubal knew he would only pitch three innings against the Rays. So the 24-year-old made the most of his opportunity by posting three scoreless innings. He allowed just one hit and one walk.

"He came out hot, and we liked that," Hinch said. "I know the last start bothered him getting into the game and not starting the game off in a good fashion. He took it personal, went to work and got into the game today very well."

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Determined to set the tone for his performance early, Skubal worked back from down 2-0 in the count against Rays leadoff hitter Randy Arozarena. He threw strikes with his next three pitches — four-seam fastball, slider and two-seam fastball — to produce a swinging strikeout.

After Skubal won a 10-pitch battle with Manuel Margot, the ever-dangerous Cruz stepped to the plate. But Skubal painted a 98 mph four-seamer on the outside edge, catching Cruz looking for his second strikeout.

Skubal got through the first two innings with 35 pitches, throwing 19 in the first and 16 in the second. He then completed the third inning with 14 pitches. Arozarena's two-out single was the only hit off Skubal. The other three batters in the third struck out: Francisco Meija (96 mph fastball), Phillips (89 mph slider) and Margot (96 mph two-seamer).

Skubal tossed 34 of 49 pitches for strikes.

Urena tosses three innings

The Tigers backed Skubal with a 1-0 lead in the third inning.

The scoring opportunity began with one out, as Dustin Garneau's bloop double bounced off a diving Margot's glove in right field. A wild pitch advanced him to third base, just before Victor Reyes sprayed a single into right for a one-run advantage.

Schoop's single and Grossman's walk — both with two outs — loaded the bases for Cabrera, but he grounded out to shortstop.

Following Skubal's three innings, Urena handled the next three frames. On the fifth pitch he threw, Cruz turned on an inside fastball and belted his 31st home run — a solo blast to left field — to tie the game, 1-1, in the fourth.

After that, Urena didn't flinch.

He retired the next five batters but walked Phillips, who stole second base, to give Arozarena, an American League Rookie of the Year frontrunner, a chance to strike with two outs. Urena, though, struck him out with a 94 mph sinker to escape the jam.

And when Margot singled off Urena's slider to open the sixth, Garneau threw him out at second base trying to steal for the first out. Urena retired Cruz and Diaz to complete his three-inning relief appearance.

"We couldn't have drawn it up any better with Tarik and Jose," Hinch said. "It's like getting a starter into the seventh (inning). If we start the game and the start gets into the seventh, we feel really good about it. When we do this tandem, both guys need to throw well in order to get into the seventh. They did that and gave us every opportunity to win."

Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.