Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever Jason Foley hadn't allowed an earned run since the end of July. His streak of 18 games and 16 innings ended with two earned runs in the ninth inning of Thursday's series finale against the Colorado Rockies at Comerica Park.
The Tigers lost, 4-2.
They failed to extend their winning streak beyond four games amid a postseason push, despite facing MLB's third-worst team.
"All losses suck," Spencer Torkelson said. "I don't really think it matters what the result of it is, but losing sucks. Obviously, we'd like to get a win here, but we didn't. They just beat us, and that's that. We'll come back tomorrow ready to go."
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Left-hander Tarik Skubal, the frontrunner to win the American League Cy Young Award, allowed one run on four hits and zero walks with six strikeouts across six innings, throwing 84 pitches. A comebacker hit his non-throwing right hand in the sixth, but he finished the inning and X-rays were negative.
Skubal has a 2.50 ERA in 29 starts.
"It's a little sore," Skubal said, "but I think I'm fine."
With the loss, the Tigers (75-72) dropped to 3½ games behind the Minnesota Twins — a deficit of 4½ games when considering the tiebreaker — for the third and final AL wild-card spot, with 15 games remaining in the regular season.
In the ninth inning, Brendan Rodgers slapped Foley's sinker into right field for a leadoff single.
On the next pitch, catcher Dillon Dingler — forced into action as the result of a pinch-hitter for Jake Rogers in the previous inning — failed to catch an elevated fastball. The ball skipped off Dingler's glove, which allowed Rodgers to take second base.
The Rockies grabbed a 3-2 lead on Jacob Stallings' RBI double to right field, hitting Foley's down-and-away slider with two strikes. The ball bounced on the outfield grass and skipped past right fielder Matt Vierling. As a result, Rodgers scored easily from second.
Later on, the Rockies extended their lead to 4-2 on Jake Cave's sacrifice fly.
The Tigers threatened in the ninth inning with Colt Keith's one-out walk and Torkelson's two-out infield single to put runners on first and third. Zach McKinstry, though, struck out swinging against right-handed reliever Tyler Kinley to end the game.
Tarik Skubal starts
Skubal retired the first seven batters, but the eighth batter — rookie Jordan Beck — hit a two-strike hanging curveball for a solo home run with one out in the third inning, taking a 1-0 lead.
It was the only damage against Skubal.
"I didn't really execute pitches at a great clip," Skubal said. "Not a lot of first-pitch strikes, a lot of misfires. I got to get back to what makes me a good pitcher, and what I did today, I don't think is what makes me a good pitcher. Too many misfires in there."
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The 27-year-old worked around trouble in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, he struck out Stallings with five fastballs in a row — the final three after a mound visit from Rogers — to strand runners on the corners. In the fifth, Skubal stranded a runner with help from Riley Greene, who made a leaping catch in left field to rob Ezequiel Tovar of a two-run home run.
"It was really good," Skubal said of Rogers' mound visit. "He jumped my ass a little bit, and I needed it in the moment, and then the result happened. That was good on him. That's a credit to who he is and the leader he is behind the plate."
A scary moment happened in the sixth inning.
Skubal took a comebacker — 71 mph exit velocity — off his right hand, just below the heel of his glove. He bobbled the ball and made an athletic catch with his left hand, but after the play, he dropped his glove to the mound and shook his right hand in pain.
Skubal walked to the edge of the infield grass in front of second base. He received a visit from Hinch and assistant athletic trainer Kelly Rhoades. After a lengthy talk, Skubal threw a couple of warm-up pitches and stayed in the game.
He completed the sixth inning but didn't return for the seventh.
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Spencer Torkelson's big swing
The Tigers were shut out until the fourth inning.
Torkelson fell into a two-strike count within the first two pitches against right-hander Ryan Feltner. There were two runners on base with two outs in the inning, thanks to Greene's single and Jace Jung's walk.
Instead of striking out, Torkelson took the next two pitches for balls to even the count, then fouled off back-to-back pitches. On the seventh pitch, Torkelson ripped Feltner's hanging curveball into the left-field corner for a two-run double and a 2-1 lead.
"What I did was simplify and not try to do too much," Torkelson said. "I backed the fastball up and let everything play off of that. I choked up a little bit, but that's really it. Just try to keep it simple. A three-run homer would be great, but you really just want to keep the line moving."
The Rockies tied the game, 2-2, on pinch-hitter Charlie Blackmon's infield single in the seventh inning. Keith, the second baseman, fielded the ball up the middle, but his on-the-run throw — rather than planting his back foot before throwing — wasn't strong enough to get the runner.
"I mean, he's 240 pounds running as fast as he possibly can away from the play," Hinch said of Keith's play. "He was going as fast as he could away from the play and had a hard time stopping."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers give up two runs in ninth inning in 4-2 loss to Colorado Rockies
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