"We needed to put the ball in play and create opportunities. The first-and-third (after Vierling's hit) opened up the hole for Gio and he has the best bat control of anyone on our team. He directed a ball through there."

Lefty reliever Andrew Chafin, who had pitched a clean eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts, got the first out of the ninth, punching out Evan Carter. Hinch then went to Jason Foley, who is emerging as the club's closer.

Foley didn't make it easy on himself. He gave up a single and walk and with two outs had to deal with the ever-dangerous Adolis Garcia, who was sent up to pinch-hit. Foley got him to fly out to center, earning his fifth save.

"We never go into the eighth inning down thinking we're going to lose," Carpenter said. "We always think we're going to win no matter who we are facing."

With the offense sputtering, the margin for error is razor thin for the Tigers right now and the burden falls on the pitching to hold the game close. Mize, like Reese Olson did Monday night, carried that burden without buckling. He allowed just five singles and struck out six. Four of the hits were bunched in a two-run fifth inning.

"Yeah, I did some good things and I made some mistakes and got singled to death in the fifth," Mize said. "But I did some things that we built upon from last time out and left the game tied. I always prefer to leave with a lead, but leaving it tied, I feel good about our bullpen against anybody and that showed today."

Mize deftly mixed sliders, splitters and knuckle-curves off a four-seam fastball that averaged 94.7 mph and hit 97 mph. He threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of 23 hitters and worked ahead through most of his outing.

"Casey is going to tell you he wasn't perfect but he did his part," Hinch said. "In reality, he did everything against that lineup that we could've asked and he held strong until the end."

The Tigers, despite scoring the fifth fewest runs in the American League, having the fifth lowest batting average and third lowest OPS, are 10-7.

"We'll take it," Carpenter said.

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