Braves’ bullpen and defense falter late as Tigers rally to take series finale

“But we were still in position to win that game late in the game, just couldn’t finish it.”

Atlanta (22-10) leaves Thursday to embark on a nine-game, three-city road trip that starts Friday in Colorado against the Rockies.

“We go to Colorado, a tough place to play. You got Seattle and Dodgers. We can say this, really, about every trip,” Weiss said. “It seems that way, when you’re getting ready to go on the road, it’s like, ‘Man, it’s going to be a challenge.’ It’s big leagues, so there’s challenges to virtually every part of the schedule.”

On Thursday, while leading 2-1, the Braves went to Joel Payamps out of the bullpen in the eighth. The Tigers pounced.

Kerry Carpenter tripled on a deep fly ball to center that Eli White leaped for and missed. Matt Vierling chopped an RBI double down the line into left to tie the game at 2-all.

After Payamps (0-2) walked Hao-Yu Lee and struck out pinch-hitter Dillon Dingler, Braves reliever Aaron Bummer entered the chat and walked Kevin McGonigle on four straight pitches to load the bases. Gleybar Torres lifted a sacrifice fly to center that gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead.

José Suarez began the ninth with a pair of strikeouts before a walk to Wenceel Pérez. Vierling ripped a hot shot to third that ate up Austin Riley, and when Mike Yastrzemski charged in from left field to grab the ball, he overran it, which allowed Pérez to score.

Dingler added an RBI double after that to provide more insurance.

“When you’re winning a lot of games, there’s a price to pay, right?” Weiss said. “There’s a price to pay with those (bullpen) guys that need they’re going to need a reset for at least a day, sometimes a couple days or they’re not going to make it to the finish line. We’ll head to Colorado and try to keep this train rolling.”

The Braves had gotten another sparkling start from Bryce Elder, who threw six innings and lowered his ERA to 1.88 and his WHIP to 1.05. The righty threw 90 pitches and fanned five while dancing around three walks and six hits.

Part of a bit of a “B” lineup Thursday, Braves designated hitter Kyle Farmer helped spark some offense with a one-out single in the second inning that moved Mauricio Dubón, who had been hit by a pitch, to second. White, playing center field to give Michael Harris II an off day, laced an RBI single to left, making it 1-0.

Dubón padded the lead in the third with a two-out single to center that scored Ozzie Albies.

Elder kept the Tigers at bay until the fifth when Vierling reached out and punched a two-out RBI single into shallow right, cutting the Braves’ lead in half.

“I don’t know if it’s luck or good timing of when the guy gets on. You never want a two-out walk, two-out hit. You limit that instead of the leadoff guy. I think I kept him off most the time,” Elder said of his day. “Kind of nitpicking, but the three walks there, I felt really good.

“I know I kind of went in the seventh, but with the three walks, kind of got the pitch count up, and so kind of cost me there. I’d like to stay out of the bullpen there just to kind of give those guys some more time since we got so many in a row. But overall, I was pleased with it.”

The Braves’ lead nearly dissipated in the seventh against reliever Tyler Kinley, who found himself in a bases-loaded, one-out jam. But Kinley got Riley Greene to chase a curveball and Spencer Torkelson to line out to left to end the threat.

Turns out the rally in the seventh was a sign of things to come for the Tigers (16-16), who were able to salvage a game in the series.

Tigers starter Framber Valdez struck out eight over six innings. Drew Anderson (1-0) picked up the win in relief.