Wenceel Pérez hit a three-run triple to break open a tight game, and Jack Flaherty earned his first win of the season as the Detroit Tigers came from behind to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-3 on Saturday night.
Detroit scored six runs, all with two outs, in the seventh inning to take a 6-2 lead. Flaherty (1-3), who had pitched well for most of the season, looked set for another loss before the Tigers staged their comeback.
Pérez hit two triples, Javier Báez had four hits, and the Tigers got 11 of their 15 hits in the last three innings to win the first two games of the three-game series.
“We hung in there against a really good pitcher. Today wasn’t easy,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. Until the sixth inning, it was a duel between Flaherty and Zac Gallen. Each struck out six batters in the first three innings.
“They’re fun. Zac’s a stud. You just keep pitching and tonight these guys got me out of it with a huge inning,” Flaherty said. “We’ve been swinging the bats well for the last two days.
Arizona broke through in the sixth inning when Ketel Marte tripled to drive in the first run, extending his career-high hitting streak to 17 games, the longest current streak in the majors. Joc Pederson then singled to score Marte.
But Detroit, who couldn’t score after getting 13 runs on Friday night, responded in the seventh against Gallen (5-3). Doubles by Gio Urshela and Báez — the latter with two outs — got the Tigers on the scoreboard. Former Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly followed with a single to tie the game and knock out his former teammate.
Joe Mantiply came in for Gallen, and Riley Greene doubled, sending Kelly to third. Mark Canha was walked intentionally to load the bases for Pérez, who tripled to left center to bring in all three runners. He later scored on Urshela’s infield hit to finish the scoring for the inning.
Pérez added a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the Tigers’ two-run eighth to end with four RBIs.
The battle continued between innings, as Flaherty dug out a hole in front of the rubber when he took the mound. When Gallen returned, he called the grounds crew to refill it — and the cycle repeated itself until Gallen was taken out in the seventh.
Flaherty and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo exchanged words from their dugouts in the seventh, but Lovullo didn’t want to talk about that situation after the game.
“I didn’t have any issues with it,” Flaherty said. “I know what was going on because I know Zac, but they let him continue to fix it. You just keep pitching. He pitched really well. “Every mound I get on, I kick it out. I’ve done it since high school. For whatever reason, it feels better that way.”
