Canha significantly rumbled to third base on the play and scored the game-winner on a bloop single to right-center by Spencer Torkelson.

"This is just another example of the near-safe, near-out discussion — you've got to play aggressively," Hinch said, alluding to the seven bases runners the Tigers have had thrown out this season. "Everything matters on that play. The bounding ball down the left-field line, you don't know if it's going to hit that cutout and Riley has to get a good secondary lead and cut the bag at second and look at Joey.

"And Canha doesn't give up on the play and gets to third. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is. Their infield has to draw in and Tork has a chance to bloop a ball over the infield."

To that point, the Tigers had scored just two earned runs in their last 28 innings. And against Ober, they'd only managed three hits and weren't hitting many balls hard. Besides the hits, they'd managed to hit one other ball to the outfield. The 17 balls put in play against Ober had a meek average exit velocity of 81 mph, including six infield popups.

"We feel it," Hinch said of the mounting frustration. "We know what's going on. We know how tough it's been recently. You try your best to block it all out but you need something positive to happen. You can preach patience and staying positive, but you need hits to feel good."

The fanbase, both among the 17,317 in the park and those across social-media platforms, was getting restless. Boo-birds and insults flew after the seven straight scoreless innings. Báez, who came into the game hitting .125 with no extra-base hits, was and has been the target of a lot of it

"I know it's frustrating for the fans," Báez said. "But that doesn't really help the team or the organization. If we are grinding together, we should stand up together. We should stay together when we're down. It's not only here. This is happening in other organizations and to other players."

The boos, Báez said, are part of the bargain. But being verbally abused, on a personal and lewd level, is not.

"It doesn't affect me, to be honest," he said. "People talk trash, they're behind the netting, they can say anything. I just worry about playing good for my team and my organization. Booing is fine. But when they start saying other stuff and cussing at you, it's different.

"You got families and kids out there. That's not what they are there for."

...continued

©2024 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.