Athletics' pitching shuts down Tigers; Maeda 'inconsistent' with strike throwing

Detroit — The Tigers have been living quite well on skinny margins this season, but it caught up with them on Saturday. Hard to live on zero runs.

Right-hander Paul Blackburn and his mostly-soft, six-pitch repertoire flummoxed the Tigers for six innings and the Oakland Athletics evened the series with a 4-0 win in front of an announced crowd of 27,529 at Comerica Park.

"He's a good pitcher," said Spencer Torkelson, who went hitless in three at-bats against Blackburn. "Nothing overpowering, but he did a really good job of staying out of the middle. He didn't give you much to hit and he kept you off-balance."

The Tigers hit some balls hard early. Parker Meadows flied out to the track in right center in the first inning (391 feet). Kerry Carpenter lined a 414-foot double off the wall in center field two batters later. Colt Keith flew out deep to right-center in the third (378 feet).

But Blackburn, mixing change-ups, sliders and cutters with a dab of sinkers, four-seam fastballs and curves, mostly kept the Tigers hitters off-balance.

"He did a really good job today of getting guys in between their plan," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "If it was soft, he threw just enough soft outside the zone to get chase and early swings. If it was more fastball-cutter oriented, he was able to entice soft contact.

"He teases you with a variety of pitches and when he rolls the lineup over, he doesn't give you the same look."

Blackburn allowed three hits, two of which never left the infield. He struck out four and the 18 balls put in play had an average exit velocity of 82 mph.

BOX SCORE: Athletics 4, Tigers 0

"He started at-bats soft and finished at-bats soft," Torkelson said. "But even if he was throwing more off-speed pitches, if he was more in the heart of the plate, I think we would've done more damage. It was a day we probably should have tried to take our knocks and get him out an inning or two earlier and get into their bullpen."

Getting hits against the Athletics' bullpen was no picnic, either. Right-hander Austin Adams, throwing mostly sliders — 95-mph sliders — set the Tigers down in order in the seventh with two strikeouts.

In the eighth, the Tigers had to deal with the 101-mph fastballs of Athletics right-hander Mason Miller. He threw 12 of them in the eighth. Catcher Carson Kelly lined one to right field for a double and Torkelson drew a walk. But he was able to get Carpenter to ground out to first base to end the only inning the Tigers had multiple runners on base.

Miller finished off the ninth, allowing only a two-out single to Keith.

"It is an adjustment," Torkelson said of trying to adjust to the higher velocity after six innings of Blackburn's softer mix. "But I don't think that is an excuse at all."

It was an odd start for Tigers veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda. He made just one regrettable pitch in his 5.2 innings. He hung a slider to Brent Rooker in the first inning and the Oakland slugger mashed it 409 feet into the seats in left, a two-run homer. He allowed only one other hit.

He also threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 22 batters he faced.

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And yet, he had a subpar 54% strike percentage overall. He went to three-ball counts on nine hitters and walked four. Two of the four runners walked ended up scoring. The Rooker at-bat ended up being symbolic of his day. Maeda got ahead 1-2, nibbled the count to 3-2 and then, ka-boom.

"The first inning, I struggled continuously," Maeda said through interpreter Daichi Sekizaki. "It was kind of a continuation of my first outing (six runs in 3.1 innings against the White Sox) with the mechanics. But I was able to attack the hitters from the second inning on. That was a big part of my outing today."

It was just the second time in 22 starts since Maeda came back from Tommy John surgery that he walked three or more hitters in a start. He walked Zack Gelof to start the sixth inning and that one would cost him.

Gelof got to second on a high-hopper back to Maeda. With two outs, Hinch brought in lefty Joey Wentz to face left-handed hitter Seth Brown. Brown rapped a single to right, scoring Gelof. It was the first of two inherited runners who would score against Tigers relievers.  

Rooker banged an RBI single off Will Vest in eighth, scoring Gelof, who had walked and stole second against Wentz.

"I thought he settled in pretty well," Hinch said about Maeda. "The fastball got better. The strike-throwing was still a little more inconsistent than it's going to be. April has not been his best month."

Over his career, in fact, it's been his worst statistical month by far. He's 11-13 with a 5.02 ERA and 1.422 WHIP in starts made at the end of March and April.

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"His body is starting to move better," Hinch said. "And based on how this game started for him, getting as deep as he got and being as effective as he was, it was a good adjustment by him."

Maeda threw 32 splitters and 27 four-seam fastballs with an average velocity of 89 mph. The fastball might have been his most effective pitch. He got three whiffs on six swings with eight called strikes.

"I started feeling better about my fastball after the third inning," he said. "Hopefully I can build off that in my next start."

Fans gave Maeda a warm ovation as he walked back into the dugout in the sixth.

"It's an absolute pleasure to pitch at Comerica Park," Maeda said. "It would've been nice if I could have gotten the team a win. Nevertheless, it was a fun day."

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky