Tigers ALDS Game 3 loss puts Scott Harris trade deadline outrage at forefront

The Tigers were already in a tough spot after three innings in Game 3 of the ALDS, when the Mariners scored two after an awful lapse in judgment for Zach McKinstry at third base, but former Tiger Eugenio Suárez came up to add insult to injury in the fourth.

Suárez ended his regular season ice-cold and was still waiting for his first hit of the ALDS when he came up for his second at-bat against Jack Flaherty. He fouled off a 93.2 MPH fastball near the heart of the zone, then didn't miss on another fastball, only a tick faster and almost in the exact same spot.

It was barreled, and Suárez hit it 422 feet out to left center field, just a bit over the Little Caesars glove. It was his 50th homer of the year across the regular and postseason.

Tigers fans had to watch as Jorge Polanco hit two homers off of Tarik Skubal on Sunday night, but Suárez doing it at Comerica had an extra sting to it, because Suárez could've done that for the Tigers if Scott Harris' trade deadline had gone a different way.

Eugenio Suárez's home run in ALDS Game 3 rubs salt into Tigers fans' wounds after missed trade deadline opportunity

It's unclear how interested the Tigers actually were in Suárez at the deadline, but the man himself had expressed interest in coming back to Detroit, and basically everyone who was even thinking about adding an infield bat at the deadline was thinking about Suárez.

The Tigers didn't add a bat at the deadline, and they hardly added a usable pitcher. Of all of their acquisitions, Kyle Finnegan and Rafael Montero were the only ones who made it onto the ALDS roster, and some were gone before the postseason.

Meanwhile, the Tigers' offense could muster just four hits off of Mariners starter Logan Gilbert and one run that they lucked into, when Josh Naylor couldn't hang onto a ball at first base on a Kerry Carpenter dribbler. Detroit has had a single game-winning offensive outburst all month, in Game 3 of the Wild Card. Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter have gone a collective 4-for-35 in the first three games of the ALDS.

By the end of the sixth, with Seattle up 5-1, the Tigers looked like they were already ready to flush the game and come back tomorrow. That's fine in a regular season game, but not in October. They tried to prove that they weren't totally down for the count with a three-run ninth inning that gave the fans who actually stayed at Comerica a reason to cheer, but it wasn't enough.

Would Suárez have magically solved everything? Probably not. But he at least would've given the Tigers a little life in what was by far their most embarrassing loss of the postseason so far. Instead, Harris stuck to his guns (and held his prospects a little tighter) and refused.