Detroit >> The Tigers have played clean baseball for most of the season. You don’t carry the best record in baseball into the middle of June without playing the game right.

But there was nothing clean about the way they played Sunday and it cost them a series.

“I think it’s important to say that one game doesn’t define us,” manager AJ Hinch said after the Reds rallied for four gift-wrapped, unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning and beat the Tigers 8-4 in the rubber match of the three-game series before a sellout crowd (40,418) at Comerica Park.

“We obviously are better at executing those plays,” he said. “That’s not been our identity. It’s never easy losing a winnable series but that’s what happened. We get a day off (Monday) to reset ourselves.”

There will be some uneasy moments, though, as the Tigers wait on the medical results on back-end reliever Will Vest. Vest, who was charged for three unearned runs in that nightmarish eighth inning, left with the trainer after uncorking a run-scoring wild pitch.

“He looked into the dugout after that ball he threw,” Hinch said. “He said he had this feeling in his pinky and it was bothering him. We’ll get him evaluated. He’ll run through a whole battery of tests. I have no idea what it is.”

Vest didn’t want to address the media until he had a better idea of what he’s dealing with.

“It’s a long season,” said Gleyber Torres, who had three hits including a clutch, two-out single that broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the seventh. “So far we’ve played really good. Let’s not judge anybody. It’s just part of the game. This was a missed opportunity, I guess. A tough loss, especially the way we lost.

“But we have an opportunity to learn from it. We’ll be ready for the next game.”

Detroit Tigers pitcher Will Vest throws against the Cincinnati Reds in the eighth inning.

Riley Greene followed Torres with an RBI-double off the center-field wall to put the Tigers up 4-2 entering the eighth. Then it all fell apart.

It started with an error by lefty reliever Brant Hurter, who fumbled a comebacker hit by TJ Friedl and then rolled an underhand toss past first baseman Spencer Torkelson.

Hinch decided to bring in Vest right then and there.

“I was thinking get out of the eighth and we didn’t,” he said. “Where we were, in the middle of their order, it was just try to stop it. Just try to end the inning with the lead.”

Vest was greeted by singles from Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz, scoring one run. But it still looked like he would get out of it with a lead still intact. He struck out Tyler Stephenson and got Christian Encarnacion-Strand to hit a ground ball to Zach McKinstry at third base, a potential inning-ending double-play ball.

But the ball spun in McKinstry’s glove and he double-clutched on the throw. Runners were safe at second and first and the bases were loaded.

“De La Cruz really hustled (into second),” Torres said. “McKinstry got the ball and bobbled it a little bit but I thought we got at least one out at second base. I have to give credit to De La Cruz. He hustled in there really well.”

De La Cruz was initially called out, but the call was correctly reversed after video review. Pinch-hitter Will Benson tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

A single by Gavin Lux made it 5-4 and that’s when Vest unleashed a pitch to Santiago Espinal that flew over catcher Dillon Dingler’s head to the backstop. Encarnacion-Strand scored on the wild pitch.

That ended Vest’s day and De La Cruz effectively ended the game with a two-run opposite field homer in the top of the ninth off reliever Brenan Hanifee, his fourth straight game with a homer.

“It’s tough but games like this happen,” Torres said. “We went back and forth with them, but in the last couple of innings, we missed some plays to finish the inning and hold the lead. It’s a tough loss, for sure.”

It wasn’t just a bad eighth inning. Five of the Reds’ eight runs were unearned. The three errors was a season-high.

“It was just a lot of misplays,” Hinch said. “I think the McKinstry play, that’s not sloppy. He was in the play, he just mishandled it. The Hurter error and the (Sawyer Gipson-Long) error were tough because of where we were in the game.”

Gipson-Long, who took over after opener Tyler Holton pitched a clean first inning, got De La Cruz to roll over on a cutter leading off the fourth inning. He got to the ball quickly but his throw went down the right-field line, putting De La Cruz on second.

Gipson-Long bounced a breaking ball allowing De La Cruz to advance to third. He scored on a single by Stephenson. Shortstop Javier Baez then misplayed a ground ball and Stephenson ended up scoring on a sacrificefly.

They were able to get out of the inning without further trouble thanks to a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double-play by Gipson-Long and catcher Dingler. But the long inning ended Gipson-Long day after just three innings and 55 pitches.

It also put the bullpen in a bind, forcing Chase Lee and Hurter into the game, and ultimately, Vest, earlier than Hinch would’ve hoped.

“Any extra pitches are tough, in any scenario,” Gipson-Long said. “The error wasn’t great for my outing length. But you also have to be OK when something like that happens, going back out and making pitches, which I thought I did. I didn’t let it spiral out of control.”

The Tigers’ offense, for the first six innings, was limited to a pair of solo home runs off Reds lefty starter Wade Miley. Jahmai Jones, who came in 6 for 11 in his first seven games, launched a 2-1 cutter over the bullpen in left.

In the fourth, Wenceel Perez stayed on a 2-1 changeup and sent it 408 feet over the fence in left-center.

But that was it until the two-out damage in the seventh.

“Just too many mistakes to win the series and that is disappointing,” Hinch said. “But we can take something away from it and be better.”

The concern over Vest is real. The Tigers’ bullpen is already in a state of flux with veteran John Brebbia being designated for assignment Sunday. That spot in the bullpen, now occupied by righty Tyler Owens, is expected to be somewhat of a revolving door.

Both Hurter and Hanifee have been carrying heavy workloads while Beau Brieske, who is expected to be a leverage option, is working through some command issues at Triple-A Toledo.

Most likely, Tommy Kahnle would get most of the save situations if Vest is out.

“We’re going to have some Mondays off here coming up,” Hinch said. “And after a game like today, I’d like to be away from the park for a day.”