DETROIT (AP) — Matt Manning wasn’t upset about being pulled while pitching a no-hitter.
He said he didn’t even realize it until someone told him in the dugout.
“I had no idea,” he said. “I was like, ‘well, dang,’”
By the time the game was over, everyone at Comerica Park knew what Manning and relievers Jason Foley and Alex Lange had achieved.
Foley and Lange finished what Manning started, and the Tigers no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays in a 2-0 win on Saturday.
Manning (3-1) pitched 6 2/3 innings and Foley got four straight outs.
Lange, the Tigers closer, came in for the ninth and struck out Bo Bichette on three pitches. Brandon Belt lined out to center field, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to third on an 0-2 pitch.
It was the ninth no-hitter in Tigers history and the first combined one. It was the first no-hitter for the franchise since Spencer Turnbull no-hit the Seattle Mariners on May 18, 2021. Detroit no-hit the Blue Jays for the second time — Justin Verlander did it at Toronto on May 7, 2011.
Verlander also pitched the most recent no-hitter against the Blue Jays, doing it for Houston on Sept. 1, 2019.
It’s second no-hitter in the majors this season after Domingo Germán’s perfect game for the New York Yankees at Oakland on June 28. The last combined no-hitter in the regular season was by the Houston Astros against the Yankees on June 25, 2022, and the Astros repeated the feat — again with Cristian Javier as the starting pitcher — against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the World Series on Nov. 2.
The Tigers celebrated at the mound with Manning and Foley joining the crowd.
“How about that, Detroit?” Lange yelled to the crowd while being interviewed on the field with Manning, Foley and catcher Eric Haase. “Thank you for sitting through the rain to cheer for us.”
Manning was replaced after walking Cavan Biggio with two outs in the seventh. He walked three batters and hit one while striking out five. He threw 91 pitches.
“He was laboring a ton,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I almost took him out after the fifth and after the sixth. I sent him out for the seventh, but once a runner gets on, we have to worry about winning the game.”
Foley retired Whit Merrifield in the seventh before pitching a perfect eighth.
“I thought Matty was going to keep going, but I got in there and tried to throw strikes,” he said. “This is pretty awesome — I couldn’t ask for two better guys to do this with.”
Kevin Gausman (7-5) allowed two runs in the first inning.
Riley Greene singled in his first at-bat since May 30 and scored on Spencer Torkelson’s one-out double in the first.
Kerry Carpenter followed with an RBI triple to make it 2-0, but Javier Báez hit into an inning-ending double play.
Carpenter made a spectacular catch to start the fourth inning, sliding in foul territory to catch Guerrero Jr’s pop fly down the right-field line.
Báez made a big play in the sixth, racing into left field to catch Bichette’s fly ball with left fielder Matt Vierling shifted to left-center field.
“You have to tip your cap to good pitching and some great defense,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Javy made a great play on Bo’s ball and Carpenter made the catch on Vladdy. That’s usually what happens — you have good pitching backed up by some good plays.”
The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 22 minutes by rain and a hard shower fell in the first inning.
“I think that helped me a lot — battling through adversity early like that,” said Manning, who started the game by hitting Bichette and walking Belt. “I got into rhythm with Haase and it felt really good.”
Haase also caught Turnbull’s no-hitter.
“About the sixth inning, you start counting outs,” he said. “Matt was keeping them uncomfortable and then Foley came in and shut the door before Lange did what he does.”
The Tigers lost 12-2 to the Blue Jays on Friday.
“Our approach at the plate was whatever we didn’t do last night,” Haase said. “That’s baseball — we got our teeth kicked in last night and get a combined no-hitter today.”
ROSTER MOVES
The Tigers activated Greene and RHP Beau Brieske from the injured list, optioned RHP Alex Faedo to Triple-A Toledo and designated INF Jonathan Schoop for assignment.
BIG RETURN
Greene reached base four times in his return, singling twice and walking twice.
WINNING OVER THE VISITING FANS
For the second time in 24 hours, the Tigers and Blue Jays drew more than 30,000 fans — about 50% supporting each team. That’s not uncommon when Toronto teams visit Detroit, but even the fans in blue were cheering at game’s end.
UP NEXT
The teams finish a three-game series on Sunday with LHP Tarik Skubal (0-0, 0.00) making his second start of the season for Detroit. RHP Chris Bassitt (8-5, 4.09) is scheduled to pitch for the Blue Jays.
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
