DETROIT — Spencer Torkelson looked like he had delivered the biggest swing of the Detroit Tigers’ season.
But then he was upstaged by a rookie named Nacho in another loss befitting the Tigers’ increasingly desperate September swoon.
Torkelson’s tiebreaking two-run homer in the seventh inning wasn’t enough as the Atlanta Braves rallied with a run in the eighth and two more in the ninth to hand Detroit a 6-5 defeat Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.
“I don’t have a lot of words, to be honest,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said afterwards. “Every game feels like a playoff game right now. We’re trying to do our best to get to the finish line. That’s what’s so frustrating about today. We could see the finish line, we just couldn’t get there. And our guys, rightfully so, are not feeling great about it.”
The Tigers (85-70) have lost five straight and eight of their last nine. Their lead in the American League Central has shrunk to 1.5 games over Cleveland (82-71), pending the outcome of Game 2 of the Guardians’ doubleheader in Minnesota. Detroit has seven regular-season games remaining: one more against the Braves, three in Cleveland and three in Boston.
“I know I’m out of words today because I’m tired of talking about it, and I think we should stop talking and really just get to the baseball, because that’s what’s going to ultimately get us in a better spot,” Hinch said. “We did a lot of that today, a lot of that today, and none of us are going home feeling very good.”
With two outs and a runner on in the seventh, Atlanta brought in right-hander Pierce Johnson to face Torkelson. After working the count full, Torkelson turned on the sixth curveball he saw and launched it into the left-field seats for a 5-3 lead.
The Tigers had opened the scoring in the first when Gleyber Torres singled, advanced on Braves starter Joey Wentz’s wild pitch and scored on Torkelson’s bloop RBI single.
Atlanta tied it in the third on rookie third baseman Nacho Alvarez’s first career home run, which barely cleared the left-field wall. Moments later, catcher Drake Baldwin belted a two-run shot to right-center off Detroit starter Keider Montero for a 3-1 Braves lead.
Montero flashed his solid stuff but struggled with command, walking four in three innings. Both hits he allowed left the park, and he was lifted after 69 pitches.
Torres collected his 1,000th career hit in the bottom of the third, a single off Wentz that moved Jahmai Jones to third. Jones scored on Wenceel Pérez’s sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Detroit loaded the bases in the fifth, but Wentz escaped by getting Riley Greene to fly out. The left-hander, a former Tiger, struck out seven over five innings and departed with a one-run lead.
That advantage vanished in the sixth when pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry tied the game 3-3 with a solo shot to left off reliever Hunter Stratton.
Tommy Kahnle, Tyler Holton and Troy Melton combined to retire 12 straight batters after Montero’s departure.
Kyle Finnegan, making his first appearance since a two-week injured list stint, entered in the eighth with a two-run cushion. The first batter he faced, Alvarez, homered again to cut the lead. It was the first run Finnegan had allowed in 14 1/3 innings since joining the Tigers at the trade deadline, but he recovered with strikeouts of Jurickson Profar and Matt Olson to end the inning.
In the ninth, the Braves put the first two runners on against closer Will Vest. He responded with back-to-back strikeouts, but Alvarez came up again with a chance to cap the best game of his career. He lined a two-strike fastball the other way, scoring Ozzie Albies with the tying run and turning the lineup over. Profar followed with a single to right to plate the go-ahead run.
The pitch to Alvarez was well off the plate.
“He was seeing the ball well today,” catcher Dillon Dingler said, understatedly.
“Sometimes you make good pitches and you get hit. Sometimes you make bad pitches and you get away with it,” said Vest. “It’s just baseball.”
The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth and were once again serenaded with loud boos by a near-sellout crowd of 38,079.
“Tomorrow’s a new day,” said Vest. “Just got to play one day at a time, and we’ll look at the end of the season and see where we are.”
Hinch said he has his players’ backs more than ever during this miserable stretch.
“Our guys are all-in,” he said. “It’s not a care factor. It’s not a concern about the work or the conversations or the mood or the vibe. It’s a concern about the results, and our guys know it. And I love these guys. I’m going to continue to back them because of all the good that we have done and all the good that we can do, despite all of this. What a miserable ride this has been for a short period of time. But guess who controls our own destiny? We do.”
Said Torkelson: “Losing sucks, but we were one pitch away from winning. We’re still in a fine position. We’ve got to keep battling and showing up every day expecting to win and putting in our work like winners do.”
Up next: The Tigers host the Braves in their final regular-season home game on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. Right-hander Casey Mize (14-5, 3.88 ERA) will face Atlanta’s Spencer Strider (6-13, 4.64).
Mize has walked just one batter while striking out 19 over 16 1/3 innings in September. Strider, the 2022 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up and a 20-game winner in 2023, missed all of 2024 after elbow surgery. His 2025 season has been uneven, but he’s coming off back-to-back strong September starts.
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