TORONTO — Detroit Tigers veteran Mark Canha has gone 48 games without hitting a home run.
The 35-year-old, who had struggled offensively for more than two months, ended his home run drought in the fourth inning of Friday’s hard-fought contest against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
“It was nice,” Canha said. “We have dry spells every now and then, and it’s nice to finally have one.”
Canha’s two-run homer off right-hander Chris Bassitt helped the Tigers beat the Blue Jays 5-4 on Friday in the opener of a three-game series (and a seven-game road trip) to open the unofficial second half of the season. Eight of the nine runs scored between the Tigers and Blue Jays came on home runs.
The Tigers (48-50) also got a boost from right-hander Jack Flaherty, who pitched into the sixth inning with eight strikeouts, and rookie Wenceel Perez hit a home run in the seventh inning.
“It was a hard-earned win,” Canha said. “Everybody contributed and the field worked well in the end. It was good to get back to that competitive mode. We did a good job winning those close games.”
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The Tigers and Blue Jays traded home runs throughout Friday’s game, with four home runs combined. The final home run, by Blue Jays veteran George Springer, cut the Tigers’ lead to 5-4 in the eighth inning, but right-handed reliever Jason Foley and left-handed reliever Tyler Holton preserved the one-run advantage in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
Holton recorded his third save of the season in as many chances.
The home run spree began with Canha in the fourth inning, facing his former teammate. Canha and Bassitt spent most of their careers together with the Oakland Athletics and New York Mets. Canha hit a changeup in the middle of the inning for a two-run home run to left field.
His big swing gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
“I wish the All-Star break would have come sooner,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We had a lot of fun with him in the dugout. We made fun of him a little bit because it’s been a while.”
Canha hit five homers in his first 23 games with the Tigers, then hit No. 6 in the Tigers’ 39th game on May 11. Friday marked the end of a 48-game hitting streak.
He entered Friday with a .202 batting average and a .550 OPS since May 1, a span of 55 games.
“I worked on a lot of things,” Canha said. “It was encouraging because I wanted to see that explosiveness in the swing that I didn’t feel before the break. I was depressed about it. I didn’t feel like I had the whip in my swing that I’m used to. You do that and you’re like, ‘OK, there was something wrong.’ It’s reassuring to know that we did the right things during the break and I came back.”
Before Canha’s home run, Riley Greene gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning with an RBI single to score Matt Vierling, who led off the inning with a double.
Canha finished 1 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
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Jack Flaherty solid despite big swing
Flaherty had a perfect game until the fifth inning.
And the veteran right-hander dominated against the Blue Jays until his final pitch with two strikes and two outs in the sixth inning.
“He was really good,” Hinch said. “It’s unfortunate that the outing ended like that, but it’s hard to say it wasn’t a good outing considering all the swings and misses and five scoreless runs before the last swing of his outing. We’ll take that to heart every time.”
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A big hit by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. spoiled the final line of a brilliant performance by Flaherty, who allowed two runs on three hits and a walk with eight strikeouts in 5⅔ innings. His 98th and final pitch landed in the left-field stands.
Guerrero hit a middle-mid slider off Flaherty for a two-run home run, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 3-2. He crushed the ball 445 feet with an exit velocity of 117.5 mph. The home run came after Flaherty walked rookie Spencer Horwitz on six pitches.
“You have to finish the sixth inning,” Flaherty said. “We had two outs, we got the first two outs, then we got a walk, and that’s what led to it. It was a bad situation to walk a guy, with nobody on the field and you were leading. A pitch got away. Overall, it was a good job. I’ll move on to the next one.”
Flaherty continued to dominate as a transfer candidate despite the sixth-inning home run. The 28-year-old maintained his 3.13 ERA in his 17th start, and his pitching looked sharp in his second start since returning from a back injury.
The Blue Jays couldn’t touch Flaherty’s secondary pitches until Guerrero’s error.
Before the sixth inning, the Blue Jays failed to put a runner on base until Bo Bichette’s single in the top of the fifth. He won a nine-pitch battle with a single down the first-base line to end Flaherty’s perfect game.
Flaherty stranded two runners in the fifth inning by striking out back-to-back batters. He struck out Alejandro Kirk with a painted fastball on the outside edge, then struck out Ernie Clement with a down-and-out curveball.
“I felt like I threw some good sliders,” said Flaherty, who had a 35.4 percent walk-off percentage. “I felt like overall I threw a bunch of them. They were better for lefties, and for some righties, I threw a couple that weren’t really competitive in the other batter’s box. But the stuff was good. The fastball command fluctuated throughout the game. One inning the fastball was good, and then another inning it was off-speed. Overall, I just tried to attack the hitters and throw good pitches.”
More home runs
The Tigers answered with a home run in the seventh inning.
Perez hit a two-run home run, increasing the Tigers’ lead to 5-2, over the right-center field wall with two outs in the seventh inning. He hit a first-pitch sinker to chase Bassitt out of his lead.
It was Perez’s sixth home run of 2024.
“He’s got really good power with the bat and the ball,” Hinch said. “He’s got to be looking for a pitch, playing a game plan and making sure he doesn’t miss. We’ll take the power when it comes, but his decision-making is generally really good in the batter’s box, and that helps him.”
The Blue Jays of course countered Perez’s eighth-inning home run with Springer’s two-run home run off right-handed reliever Beau Brieske.
Springer pulled off a hanging gear change in the middle.
Springer’s home run cut the Tigers’ lead to 5-4.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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