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Tigers winners/losers vs Mariners in Game 3: Jack Flaherty flops, but bats real problem
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- Tigers winners/losers vs Mariners in Game 3: Jack Flaherty flops, but bats real problem
The Detroit Tigers lost Game 3 of the ALDS to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 8-4, forcing a must-win Game 4 at Comerica Park on Wednesday.
Free Press sports writer Andrew Birkle picks the winners and losers from the first playoff game at Comerica Park in 2025 and spoiler alert, there weren't any winners for those sporting the Old English D.
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Winners
Mariners hitters not named Cal Raleigh , Julio Rodriguez and Jorge Polanco
In Game 1 of the ALDS, Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh were the only Mariners to get a hit against the Tigers. In Game 2, Jorge Polanco joined the party, going 3-for-5 with two solo home runs as Raleigh and Rodriguez each notched a hit each. Everyone else? Pretty quiet, outside a few knocks. That changed early for the Mariners in Game 3.
After a slow start, the Mariners got their first four hitters on base: Victor Robles (double), J.P. Crawford (single) and Randy Arozarena (single). That led to two runs. Then former Tiger Eugenio Suárez , who the team briefly targeted at the trade deadline, broke out of his brief playoff slump with his first hit of the series, annihilating a Jack Flaherty fastball 422 feet to left center. In the sixth, Crawford turned on fastball and crushed it 397 feet for a no-doubt homer. Sure, Raleigh had an RBI as well, but on Tuesday the Mariners got top-to-bottom results from the lineup that the Tigers still haven't gotten this postseason.
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Losers
Tigers hitters – all of them (even with the rally)
As much as baseball is about analytics, situational decisions and sample sizes these days, occasionally the old school rules still ring true. Like, for example, sometimes struggles can be contagious. That seems to be the case for the Tigers. During the Tigers' last 20 games prior to Tuesday, they managed to score more than three runs just five times.
So when the Mariners took a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning, it felt like an insurmountable advantage, even though the Tigers averaged 4.68 runs per game in 2025, 11th in the league.
Yes, Spencer Torkelson drove in two runs with a double in the ninth and Andy Ibanez added a fourth with another single to make it 8-4, but it was almost a moot point. The Tigers have been getting hits all postseason, just not when they needed them.
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The Tigers managed seven hits but looked off balance all day against Mariners starter Logan Gilbert as only Gleyber Torres managed to get multiple hits. It was a frustrating outing, even with the late rally, because it felt like more of the same from the struggling Tigers hitters, despite a return to the friendly confines of Comerica Park.
Jack Flaherty
Flaherty has been consistently inconsistent in 2025 and his stats reflect it. One game Flaherty might look like he was capable of being an All-Star, the next he might look like he wouldn't be able to hold his place in the rotation.
Tuesday's start in Game 3 was the full Jack Flaherty experience.
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Flaherty cruised through the first two innings, allowing just one baserunner via a walk and looking in control outside of a tough 11-pitch fight with Josh Naylor .
The wheels came off in the third. The first four batters got on base, scoring two runs and though the righty showed some fight in getting out of a jam in the third, the fourth was right back to trouble as Suárez blasted the homer and Flaherty walked Dominic Canzone on four pitches. He was replaced in the fourth inning, allowing four runs in 3⅓ innings with four hits and three walks.
The fans
It was a long wait for home playoff baseball for Tigers fans as they watched their team start the postseason with five straight road games. But that paled in comparison to the wait for the start of Game 3.
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First pitch was originally scheduled for 4:08 p.m. but the game didn't actually start until 7 p.m. and that was after a fair amount of fans entered Comerica Park right when the gates opened about two hours before original gametime.
That's nearly five hours of sitting around in a damp, cold park waiting for the game to start for some fans, just to watch their team come out totally flat. It wasn't the most vibrant Comerica Park playoff game, but you can understand why.
Andrew Birkle is an assistant sports editor for the Free Press. Contact him at abirkle@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers winners/losers in Game 3 vs Mariners: Jack Flaherty flops
