Dietrich Enns sputters in 2nd start as Detroit Tigers fall to Washington Nationals, 11-7
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WASHINGTON — Dietrich Enns was a good story not so long ago. A 34-year-old minor-league lifer — with time in Japan and Korea — got a taste of big-league action with the hottest team in the American League and threw five scoreless innings, just a week ago.
He gave up one hit and helped the Detroit Tigers beat the Athletics on June 26. He got another start Thursday, July 3, at Nationals Park. It didn’t go as well — at all.
After first baseman Spencer Torkelson gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead with an epic, 10-pitch at-bat capped by a 428-foot moonball to dead center, Enns quickly gave the lead back, and then some.
It began with a walk — how else? A single followed. A flyout to right field gave Enns a chance to settle. Another single followed. Two runs scored. Then Paul DeJong stepped to the plate with his .207 batting average and .546 OPS. He hadn’t homered this season.
Enns’ 2-0 fastball down the middle must have been a welcome sight. DeJong crushed it. The Nationals’ led 5-3. The vibe Torkelson started vanished.
An inning later, James Wood hit a solo home run, and the Nationals just kept scoring for an 11-7 win to take two of three in the series and send Detroit to Cleveland in need of a pick-me-up.
And some pitching.
Fortunately for Detroit, reinforcements are on the way. Right-hander Reese Olson is expected to be activated Friday, July 4, to start against the Guardians. That gives the Tigers something they haven’t had in more than a month: Three straight games with a regular starter — right-hander Casey Mize and left-hander Tarik Skubal are scheduled to follow Olson in the final two games in Cleveland. The Tigers need it. They’ve lost three of six series to go 9-9 in their past 18 games and fall to 54-34.
If you’re on the glass half-full side, then focus on the two series they won before they arrived in Washington against the Twins and A's. Baseball is funny like that, and it’s easy to cut the numbers to fit a narrative.
But there is no escaping the fact that the Tigers have played .500 ball the last three weeks.
A near-rally in the eighth
Then again, the Tigers made it interesting, cutting Washington’s six-run lead to two. If not for a diving snag and one-hop throw to first from shortstop C.J. Adams to get Javier Báez in the eighth inning, the Tigers might have come all the way back. Or at least made it a one-run game, changing manager A.J. Hinch's bullpen plans.
As it was, the Tigers scored two in the eighth on that Báez groundout and a Parker Meadows single, taking advantage of a hit-by-pitch and a walk earlier in the inning. In the seventh inning, Meadows started a rally with a single. Colt Keith followed with another. And Gleyber Torres and Wenceel Pérez drove home runs with singles.
The late-inning push by the Tigers shouldn’t be surprising at this point. Nor should the add-on runs the Nationals scored in the eighth, pushing the lead back to four.
The Tigers bullpen is taxed after more than a month of bullpen days and not-quite “pitching chaos.” Toss in a couple doubleheaders over the past month and even injuries — right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long's trip to the 15-day DL Tuesday, July 1, took valuable innings away — and you’ve got a team that gave up 20 runs over two games to the last-place team in the National League East.
E's for errors, not for effort
To be fair to the pitchers Thursday night, two of those runs were unearned. They came in the fifth inning, which started with a ground ball from Nathaniel Lowe. Zach McKinstry made a nice play to glove it, then whiffed on the throw.
Lowe was safe.
Alex Call then hit a ground ball right to Báez. A clean scoop and it would’ve been a double play. He booted the ball.
Both Lowe and Call advanced when Brenan Hanifee threw a wild pitch. Brady House then singled to score the runners for a 9-3 Nationals lead.
Riley Adams then hit a grounder right to McKinstry. He misplayed it. Adams was safe.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers rally not enough in 11-7 loss to Washington Nationals
