It wasn’t the afternoon that the Detroit Tigers were envisioning against the Toronto Blue Jays, and their manager A.J. Hinch certainly didn’t mince words when it came to his thoughts afterward. Not only could his team only muster a total of three hits, but it was their defensive play that had a particularly rough outing. A total of four errors sealed their fate en route to a 4-1 setback, having dropped three of the four games in the series to their north of the border rival.
Blue Jays’ right-hander Jose Berrios had a strong afternoon, allowing only a home run to his brother in law Javier Báez over seven innings of work. At 41-62, the Tigers are now 21 full games below the .500 mark for the first time in 2022; prior to today, they had also surrendered 12 unearned runs in the previous five games.
And needless to say, Hinch wasn’t happy with his squad’s defensive play this afternoon.
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“It was sh***y,” he said of the defense as a whole against Toronto. “That’s my thoughts. It was inexcusable. Those are sloppy plays that need to be made.”
A.J. Hinch wasn’t happy with his team’s defense.
Two of Detroit’s errors were committed by Báez, including an errant pickoff throw that skipped past 1st base.
“We’re trying (to coach him),” Hinch said. “He’s been doing this his whole career, and we’re trying. He can make those plays. He knows it. Part of it is mental, part of it is physical. But they are plays that should be made.”
“It’s frustrating,” Báez said. “But at the same time, yesterday we lost and we had more hits than the other team. Things come back and forth. We’re looking forward to getting better and playing defense.”
Things won’t get any easier for the Tigers, who now travel to the Twin Cities for a divisional matchup against the Minnesota Twins that begins on Monday.
