Cleveland — Baserunning gaffes and gopher balls. They’ve been ruinous recurring traits of this lost season for the Tigers and they reared their ugly heads Thursday night in an aggravating 7-5 loss to the Indians.
After the Tigers had tied the game 5-5 in the eighth, Michael Brantley untied it with a two-out, two-run home run off reliever Blaine Hardy. It was his second homer of the game.
Hardy froze Brantley with a 2-2 curveball but didn’t get the strike call from umpire Ed Hickox. The next pitch caught too much of the plate and Brantley knocked it over the wall in right field.