Tigers lose marathon, 7-6 in 13 innings against A’s

Andrew Graham
| Special to The Detroit News

The Tigers lost a marathon game to the A’s 7-6 in 13 innings in the series opener on Friday night, failing to beat Oakland in extra innings on multiple occasions.

After taking leads in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings, the A’s came back three times, twice powered by pinch hitter Seth Brown, including the walk-off single in the bottom of the 13th inning.

Brown also hit a home run in the eleventh inning to tie the score and keep Oakland alive.

“That was a winnable game. We brought it on ourselves in a couple of situations,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “Games get a little crazy around here, and with extra innings and all those extra runners and stuff like that — it was a tough loss.”

Top pitcher Tarik Skubal had four innings of work and cruised his first two times against the Oakland lineup. But in the fifth inning, the A’s were able to get a run in to tie the score at 1-1 when Jacob Wilson tripled to score Zach Gelof. Skubal held off Wilson and ended the threat.

Then, with two outs and runners on the corners in the sixth inning, Skubal threw a two-strike pitch to Daz Cameron. The former Tigers outfielder bounced the ball into right field, scoring Brent Rooker and giving Oakland its first lead of the night, 2-1.

SCORE: A’s 7, Tigers 6 (13)

MLB STANDINGS

As the ball dribbled into right field, Skubal stood on the mound with his hands on his knees, frustrated by the turn of events. That was Skubal’s last pitch of the game as Detroit turned to the bullpen.

“Obviously a tough loss,” Skubal said. “You want to win the games you play. I got a little ‘baseballed,’ but that’s part of the game. It was just frustrating.

“Balls dropping in, broken bats, balls hitting the line, it’s probably more frustration than anything. But it’s part of the game, so you just get on with it.”

All-Star outfielder Riley Greene finished with four hits and two RBIs, and outfielder Parker Meadows added two RBIs on two hits. Detroit falls to 71-71 and is now 8-9 in extra-inning games.

The Tigers tied the score in the seventh inning after Greene hit a leadoff double, putting him in scoring position as the tying runner.

After a pair of quick outs by Andy Ibanez and Meadows, the A’s turned to Michael Otanez out of the bullpen for the third out, facing Matt Vierling. Instead of trying to stave off the damage, Greene moved to third and then scored on a pair of wild pitches to Vierling.

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In the 10th inning, Colt Keith drove in the go-ahead run off Ryan Kreidler, hitting a 103 mph fastball outside the left sideline for the go-ahead single. Hot-hitting Rooker doubled down the left field line to tie the game and send it to the 11th.

In the 11th inning, Meadows hit a two-run double to give Detroit a 5-3 lead. However, a pinch-hit Brown homerun by Shelby Miller in the bottom of the 11th tied the game and sent it to a 12th inning in which both teams traded runs.

Detroit got the bases loaded but didn’t score in the 13th inning before being eliminated.

The Tigers and A’s play again Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 4:07 p.m. (BSD/97.1).

Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.

Associated Press contributed.