Guardians rookie's mortifying defensive gaffe is even more fuel for Tigers fans' hate

Tigers fans have watched from afar as the Guardians have had one of their more eventful weeks in recent memory.

On Sunday, Cleveland fans were forced to turn their backs on longtime favorite Josh Naylor, who got into a screaming match with Austin Hedges after intentionally leaning into a pitch to get on base. The Tigers have seen a lot of this behavior from him over the years — and hate him for it — but it's like Colt Keith said, "You like him if you're his teammate, and you hate him if you're the other team."

Come Tuesday, a rookie had them back in the news. It wasn't as dramatic as the Naylor-Hedges debacle, but it was definitely more embarrassing.

In the top of the seventh with one out and a runner on second, No. 3 prospect Cooper Ingle (just called up on June 26) caught an easy Alejandro Osuna fly ball in left field.

And then he forgot how many outs there were and chucked the ball into the stands. Ezequiel Duran came in to score the go-ahead run from second with no ball in play to stop him.

You don't even have to listen very closely to hear either Guardians players or coaches yelling, "No!" as Ingle let the ball fly into the crowd.

To add insult to injury, Ingle went hitless in his next two at-bats and represented the last out of the game. We're not laughing, you're laughing.

Tigers fans are loving how often the Guardians have been in the news for the wrong reasons lately

The Guardians went 10-15 in June; the Tigers went 15-11. While it was hardly enough to Detroit closer in the standings, we do finally have the better run differential, which could be a sign of things to come.

It's been hard to be optimistic as a Tigers fan, but Detroit still has a better chance of making the postseason right now than they did going into July 2024. The 49 home runs they hit this June are tied for the most in a single month in franchise history.

And it doesn't hurt to know that the Guardians are literally handing wins to their opponents. We can have a little empathy for the kid, who came up as a catcher but was only very recently tasked with learning left field, but we mostly just want to point and laugh.

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