Pittsburgh Pirates at Detroit Tigers: Final Score & Recap
Line Score
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 1 |
| DET | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 0 |
The Story
The Detroit Tigers walked off the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 at Comerica Park on September 26, 2026, in a game that was decided almost entirely in the final inning. Detroit entered the ninth trailing and needing a comeback, and Eduardo Valencia delivered one of the most impactful single swings of the season, launching a home run off Mason Montgomery that swung win probability by 82.3 percentage points according to the DiamondIQ model's estimate. That one swing took the Tigers from a precarious position to a walk-off victory, pushing the model's estimate of a Detroit win from a pre-game 51 percent all the way to the full 100 percent at the finish.
Pittsburgh had built its lead patiently, with Bryan Reynolds contributing a triple off Jacob Waguespack in the top of the eighth that added 13.3 percentage points of win probability for the Pirates. Detroit's own bid to chip away earlier had come in the sixth, when Javier Báez stroked a double off Evan Sisk for an 18.3-point swing, while a Spencer Torkelson double-play grounder in the eighth off Luke Weaver cost the Tigers 17.8 points of win probability and kept Pittsburgh ahead entering the ninth. Hao-Yu Lee's double off Montgomery in the bottom of the ninth, worth 16.2 percentage points, set the table for Valencia's decisive blow.
Among the game's standouts, Valencia finished with a WPA of plus-65.6 percent, and Hao-Yu Lee contributed plus-24.0 WPA with a RE24 of plus-2.0, making the pair the engines of Detroit's late rally. On the pitching side, Luke Weaver led all pitchers at plus-13.3 WPA, aided significantly by the Torkelson double play, with Carmen Mlodzinski adding plus-12.1 and Gregory Soto contributing plus-9.7. Pittsburgh's Mason Montgomery absorbed the decisive damage, surrendering the game-winning home run to Valencia in a ninth inning that erased what had been a two-run Pirates cushion.