Evan PetzoldDetroit Free Press
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TORONTO —At a time when the Detroit Tigers needed it most, Justyn-Henry Malloy unloaded on a second-pitch fastball from Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman for a grand slam to left-center field with two outs in the fifth inning.
It was Malloy's first grand slam in the 35th game of his MLB career.
"Pretty cool to get the first one," Malloy said.
The milestone slam put the Tigers on the scoreboard and in the lead, but it ultimately wasn't enough to secure the series sweep, as the Tigers lost, 5-4, to the Blue Jays in Sunday's finale of a three-game series at Rogers Centre.
"I'm sad that we lost, but I feel good," said Malloy, hitting .318 with four of his six home runs in the past 14 games. "I just want to continue to stack up good at-bats and keep plugging along and keep playing good baseball, because we have been."
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The Tigers (49-51) had a chance to reach .500 for the first time since June 5, but instead, the Blue Jays —led by George Springer's two-homer performance —snapped the Tigers' four-game winning streak.
"We're going to continue to keep fighting," said catcher Carson Kelly, who finished 1-for-4 at the plate. "We got a lot of games left. If you really think about it, we got a lot of games left. We'll take it day by day, and at the end of it, we'll see where we're at."
The Blue Jays took a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning, when Ernie Clement hit an RBI single to center off against right-handed reliever Will Vest, though the run was charged to right-hander Keider Montero.
Montero, the 24-year-old rookie who started for the Tigers, gave up a leadoff single to Justin Turner, representing the go-ahead run. Although Vest walked the first batter he faced with one out in the sixth, Turner scored on the two-out single from Clement, giving Montero five earned runs across 5⅓ innings.
The Tigers nearly clawed back in the top of the eighth inning, but right fielder Daulton Varsho robbed Kelly of an extra-base hit —and the Tigers of the game-tying run —with a leaping catch with runners on first and second base.
"I put a good swing on it," Kelly said. "Right off the bat, hit barrel. One of those swings where you don't really feel it. I saw it go in the air and thought I put a good swing on it. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way. It's one of those things. You can only control so much, and where the ball goes is not one of those."
In the ninth inning, the Tigers were sent down in order by right-handed reliever Chad Green: Zach McKinstry (flyout), Javier Báez (groundout) and Gio Urshela (flyout).
Malloy's big swing
The Tigers were limited in their scoring opportunities until the fifth inning, which opened with McKinstry's leadoff single. Gausman responded with back-to-back outs, but the Tigers put together back-to-back walks — Wenceel Pérez and Colt Keith on five pitches apiece — to load the bases for Malloy.
The 24-year-old rookie, who batted cleanup for the first time in his career, made Gausman, a 33-year-old veteran, pay for those two-out walks by crushing a second-pitch fastball for a 404-foot grand slam to left-center field.
Malloy put the Tigers ahead, 4-3, with his sixth homer of the season.
"His confidence is growing as a hitter," manager A.J. Hinch said. "He's always known the zone. He's taking really tough pitches. He's drawing his walks. The damage is real. And his direction has been really good. He's going to pull a lot of pitches, but his body is in a really good position to handle a lot of different pitches, and he's making good decisions on what to swing at."
Newcomer Bligh Madris, whom the Tigers called up from Triple-A Toledo on Sunday, finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his first game.
For the Blue Jays, Gausman allowed four runs on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts across 6⅔ innings.
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Montero surrenders five runs
Montero has a 5.97 ERA in six games (five starts) with the Tigers.
In Sunday's start, Montero allowed five runs on eight hits and zero walks with three strikeouts, throwing 72 pitches. Two of the eight hits were home runs by Springer, and three of the eight hits came from Springer.
Springer hit a leadoff home run off Montero's middle-down fastball in the first inning. He then hit a two-run home run off Montero's middle-up fastball in the third inning.
"It's more about execution," Hinch said. "It looked like Keider was struggling with his location for much of the day. The breaking ball would either be pulled or it would be hung. You get into fastball counts, and guys like Springer are going to get you, and he got him twice."
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With those homers, the Blue Jays grabbed a 3-0 lead within the first three innings.
The Blue Jays tied the game, 4-4, with Spencer Horwitz's RBI single to score Springer in the fifth inning, then grabbed the lead for good with Clement's single in the sixth.
Contact Evan Petzold atepetzold@freepress.comor follow him@EvanPetzold.
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