• The Detroit Tigers lost to the Washington Nationals, 9-4, in Game 2 of a split doubleheader.
• The Tigers rallied with two runs in the 7th inning, but gave up 6 runs in the 8th to split the doubleheader.
• Jahmai Jones went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs for the Tigers.

WASHINGTON — Losing after a late-inning comeback is one of the tougher ways to lose in baseball. It’s the suddenness, of course, like when a one-run lead evaporates in a six-hit, six-run barrage in the bottom of the eighth inning. 

As happened Wednesday, July 2, at Nationals Park when Washington flipped a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 win against the Detroit Tigers, splitting the day’s split doubleheader and demoralizing a Detroit-leaning crowd. 

The Tigers (54-33) were probably due for a loss like this. Certainly, right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle was due for an inning like this. Maybe not a five-run collapse, but the right-handed relies on one pitch — his changeup — and the heart of the Nationals’ order had a bead on it. 

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The big blast came when Nathaniel Lowe tripled, clearing the bases and giving Washington a 6-4 lead. After another double and single, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch finally pulled Kahnle with the Tigers trailing 8-4. 

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The inning ruined what had been a stirring comeback from the Tigers and an encouraging rebound from starter Jack Flaherty. 

Jack Flaherty not quite back 

Flaherty hadn’t pitched well in his previous three starts, struggling to find the strike zone. His last outing, though, was better than the previous two, when he gave up seven and eight runs respectively. 

Against the Nationals, he got off to a slow start, giving up four straight singles and allowing two runs in the first inning. He followed the singles by throwing a walk, loading the bases. 

He then got ahead of Daylen Lile and coaxed a grounder to the second base side for a 4-6-3 double play. That kept the Tigers in the game, and Flaherty began to find his form in the second inning. 

After throwing 41 pitches in the first, he needed nine pitches in the second. A leadoff walk to James Wood got him in the third. With two outs, Wood stole second and scored when Josh Bell singled to left. 

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Flaherty recovered in the fourth and struck out the side. He did it again in the fifth inning, salvaging a rough start. He finished with nine strikeouts and held the Nationals to three runs. 

In his last outing, he pitched six innings and allowed three runs. 

Blue-and-orange fandemonium in D.C.

We’re not in Honolulu Blue stadium-takeover territory yet but it’s getting easier to hear Tigers fans on the road these days, and when leftfielder Jahmai Jones dug his toes in the dirt of the box in the top of the seventh inning with runners at first and second, then crushed a double to the right-field wall, thousands of the Tigers faithful stood, roared and began to chant. 

“Let’s go, Ti-gers!” “Let’s go, Ti-gers!” 

Call it a blue-and-orange takeover. Detroit should be getting used to it. 

The city took over Nationals Park — which isn’t saying a lot these days as the Nationals are struggling and drew just 30,000 to the two games Wednesday combined (about 14,000 for Game 1 and 16,000 for the nightcap) — and there’s always something else to do in the nation’s capital. Still, the noise was impressive for a while. 

And as Jones hauled around first and into second, he had to have felt like he was home. He’d just driven in two runs to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. He did it against hard-throwing lefty Jose Ferrer, who’d just struck out Riley Greene on a 100-mph sinker. 

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In that moment, it looked like the Tigers were going to find their way to another gutty win. Jones had the big hit, but others joined in. 

Spencer Torkelson mashed a double to the centerfield wall to get the Tigers on the board in the fourth inning. Colt Keith, who pinch hit for Dillon Dingler in the sixth, singled home Torkelson to cut the lead to one. (Matt Vierling, who was on first, tried to score and was thrown at the plate to end the inning.) 

And then there is newly anointed All-Star Gleyber Torres, who followed Greene to the plate after the pinch-hit strikeout and singled to center to set the table for Jones. For a moment, the noise carried out into the D.C. night. 

Then, it fell quiet quickly. 

Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.