Max Clark's magnificent 12-pitch at-bat vs Guardians exemplifies how Tigers' offense is evolving

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The Tigers' loss to the Guardians last night (and the Twins' win over the Orioles) kept them at second place in the AL Central but just half a game up from Cleveland, tied with Minnesota.

But the Rangers continue to slip. Their .496 record is keeping them in the last AL Wild Card spot for now, but it's yet another reminder (as if we needed any more of those) that the American League is laughably bad.

As for Detroit, they really can't afford that many losses these days, but let's think about this without the overreact-crashout-burnout goggles that the Twitter fans are always wearing.

The Tigers showed some grit in the late innings of last night's game. Down 6-3 in the eighth, Max Clark took a remarkable at-bat against Cade Smith. He got to 0-2 quickly on a foul and call strike, but Smith couldn't shake him for 10 more pitches. A wild pitch that completely eluded catcher Austin Hedges scored Kevin McGonigle.

Max Clark is settling into his role as one of the Tigers' peskiest batters

In the Tigers' Opening Weekend series, McGonigle battled Padres reliever Wandy Peralta for a similar 10-pitch at-bat that eventually turned into a game-winning hit. With just a 13.5% strikeout rate on the season (and 75 walks to 71 strikeouts), he continues to give pitchers grief.

Clark showed us last night that he can do the same thing. His career .383 OBP in the minors teased at player who was going to give major league pitchers some trouble, but he's been a little impatient since coming up in late July — 14 strikeouts to just four walks.

Fans have been waiting to see a battle like last night's. In admitting that he models his game after guys like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Clark all but admitted that he wants to be an agitator. At the plate, he wants to be pesky and bully pitchers into making mistakes.

And that's what the Guardians have done over these first two games that's been most surprising to me: they've made mistakes. A rare error at third base from José Ramírez on Tuesday allowed a run to score. Another last night allowed Dillon Dingler to get to first, and Guardians pitchers were responsible for two of the game's three wild pitches.

Letting an 11.5-game lead slip away has clearly gotten to Cleveland's heads. Let's see more of that during the rubber match today.

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