*Photo from the Globe and Mail*
Here's an out of left field accomplishment. Kerry Carpenter drove in a run, Alex Lange finished off the feat, and the Detroit Tigers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-0 victory on Saturday afternoon in Detroit.
After losing 12-2 the night before, the Tigers came out and tossed a combined no hitter, with 3 pitchers and Eric Haase behind the plate leading the charge to stymie the Blue Jays. It's the 9th no hitter in Tigers history and first since Spencer Turnbull did it in May of 2021 against the Seattle Mariners.
Additionally, it's also the second time that the Tigers have no hit the Blue Jays, with Justin Verlander doing so in 2011. Ironically, it was also Verlander who pitched the last time the Blue Jays were no hit, in September of 2019 with the Houston Astros.
Haase said of the no hitter that "About the sixth inning, you start counting outs. Matt was keeping them uncomfortable and then Foley came in and shut the door before Lange did what he does. Our approach at the plate was whatever we didn't do last night. That's baseball, we got our teeth kicked in last night and get a combined no-hitter today."
Both of the Tigers runs came in the first inning. Spencer Torkelson started the scoring with an RBI double, bringing home Riley Greene to make it a 1-0 lead early. Up next was Carpenter, who made the score 2-0 with an RBI triple that scored Torkelson. From there, the Tigers pitching took over and shut down the potent Toronto offense.
Matt Manning started for the Tigers and handled the first 6 2/3 innings, walking 3 hitters and striking out 5. Jason Foley was up next, throwing 1 1/3 innings to bridge the gap to the 9th inning. Alex Lange then came on and got the save to seal the combined no hitter, his 13th save of the season.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch said of pulling Manning that "This was kind of hard. Matty was grinding the whole day. He didn’t feel great the whole day. He was getting looked at by the trainer every inning. He’s had a long run of injuries. But when you’re the manager, those are just excuses when something big is going on. My first responsibility is to him, and sometimes that doesn’t line up with what everybody wants to see."
Kevin Gausman allowed two runs on 5 hits and two walks in 6 innings, striking out 7 for the Blue Jays, being a tough luck loser in this one. Nate Pearson then tossed 1 2/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen before Yimi Garcia got the final out in the 8th inning.
Toronto manager John Schneider said after the game that "You have to tip your cap to good pitching and some great defense. Javy made a great play on Bo's ball and Carpenter made the catch on Vladdy. That's usually what happens, you have good pitching backed up by some good plays."
Up next, the series wraps up on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers go for the series win with Tarik Skubal starting, while Chris Bassitt starts for Toronto as they also seek the series win.
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