Detroit Tigers' offense, bullpen struggle again in 9-1 loss to Toronto Blue Jays

Jack Flaherty crossed the century mark.

Then, Flaherty surrendered two-run home run on the 103rd and final pitch of his start in Thursday's series opener against the Toronto Blue jays at Comerica Park. The two-run home run, hit by Daulton Varsho, provided the go-ahead runs for the Blue Jays.

The Detroit Tigers lost, 9-1, to the Blue Jays in the first of four games in the series. The Tigers (23-27) have lost five games in a row and 14 of 20 games in May, slipping to 10 games out of first place in the American League Central.

"Teams go through stretches all the time," Flaherty said. "Teams go up and down. It's been a rough five in a row, and at some point, somebody's got to stop the bleeding. I hoped to do that today, but (Kevin) Gausman pitched really well, and then things kind of just snowballed after that. ... Just rally around each other. You take the season one game at a time. It's a long year, so you just continue to battle and stick together."

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Flaherty, a right-hander with a nasty slider, allowed two home runs, responsible for all three runs, but he did his part in keeping the door open for the Tigers to win by pitching into the seventh inning and working out of some jams along the way.

It wasn't his fault the offense didn't produce.

Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman allowed one run on three hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts in six innings, throwing 98 pitches. The Tigers recorded two walks in the second inning but didn't get a hit until the sixth inning.

"He's a really good pitcher," said Spencer Torkelson, who finished 0-for-2 with one walk and is currently in an 0-for-16 slump. "I feel like he had everything working for him. ... He really pitched off his heater, and I think what makes everything so effective is the amount of respect you have to give that splitter."

Gausman dominated with his fastball-splitter combination.

"We missed the fastball in the zone, a lot," manager A.J. Hinch said. "It's tough. You got to raise your sightline against him because he throws a lot of balls below the zone, and if you can stay off the splitter down, which we did most of the night, there were a couple chase, then you got to hit the fastball, and we really didn't."

A lot happened in the sixth, from breaking up Gausman's no-hitter to tying the game. A leadoff single from Javier Báez to left field marked the first hit of the game for the Tigers, followed by Carson Kelly's single.

Gausman sent down back-to-back batters after the back-to-back singles, leaving two runners in scoring position for rookie Wenceel Pérez. The youngster hit a fastball at the bottom of the strike zone for a ground-ball RBI single into center field.

Pérez tied the game, 1-1, but Kelly — who had a slow jump from second base before third base coach Joey Cora sent him — was thrown out at home plate to end the sixth inning.

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"I love the plan that we have going into every night," Hinch said. "I think we work hard to get everybody to understand it, and then you have to go out and execute it. At this level, it's gets tougher and tougher the more that you bring some of the frustrations into the game and the lack of hits pile up on you a little bit. I don't think we did a ton different other than execute, which is the competition."

While the Blue Jays scored eight runs in the final three innings, the Tigers never threatened to score against three relievers out of the bullpen in the same number of innings, finishing with five hits and two walks.

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Jack Flaherty gets it done again

Flaherty dominated for most of his start.

He slipped up a few times, and in two of those instances, the Blue Jays took advantage. Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a middle-middle pitch for a solo home run to left field in the third inning for a 1-0 lead, then Varsho launched a slider at the bottom of the strike zone in the seventh inning for a 3-0 lead.

Before Varsho's homer, Daniel Vogelbach delivered a leadoff single to kickstart the two-run seventh inning.

"It felt good coming out of the hand," Flaherty said of his slider to Varsho. "He just put a good swing on it."

Flaherty worked around trouble in other innings, such as the fourth inning when he picked off Bo Bichette at first base and induced a groundout of Vogelbach to strand a runner at third base. He also struck out Kiermaier on three pitches after Kiner-Falefa's two-out triple in the fifth inning. He walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth inning, doing so on four pitches, but sent down the next three opponents — the second, third and fourth batters in the lineup — to keep the runner at first base.

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Overall, Flaherty had a good start.

But he didn't get any run support.

"He was dealing," Hinch said. "I loved the way that he was pitching. He earned the opportunity to go out (for the seventh inning). We did have a little bit of a shorter bullpen tonight, but it was more about Jack."

Flaherty has a 3.84 ERA with nine walks and 81 strikeouts across 61 innings in 10 starts. He generated 14 whiffs on 42 swings — a 33.3% whiff rate — against the Blue Jays.

"I keep getting out-pitched," Flaherty said, "so as well as I may throw, I keep leaving the game with down."

Six runs against the bullpen

The Blue Jays scored three runs in the eighth inning against right-handed reliever Alex Faedo, taking a 6-1 lead. A walk, three hits and a sacrifice fly produced the three runs.

It started with Danny Jansen's four-pitch walk with one out in the eighth inning, and the Blue Jays built upon that momentum with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s double. The Blue Jays drove in runs on Bichette's RBI single, Justin Turner's RBI single and George Springer's sacrifice fly.

The three hits were on Faedo's changeup, sinker and slider, with the sac fly on his fastball.

The Blue Jays extended their lead to 7-1 with an RBI single from Jansen off right-handed reliever Mason Englert, making his season debut after getting called up Thursday from Triple-A Toledo. A two-run home run from Guerrero off Englert's changeup made it 9-1.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' offense, bullpen struggle again in loss to Blue Jays