'Reality check': Tigers fall behind early again, drop third straight in Pittsburgh
Chris McCosky
Pittsburgh — It’s a tough way to live, even when the bats are hot. It’s a simple recipe for defeat when they are not.
The Tigers keep falling behind early, turning these games into steep, uphill climbs.
On Monday, the torrid Pittsburgh Pirates pummeled right-hander Reese Olson for five runs in the first three innings and rode that to a 7-4 win at PNC Park before a tiny crowd of 9,957.
"You know, we got off to such a good start and then we have these last three games and it's almost like a reality check," said right fielder Matt Vierling, who had two hits, scored a run and knocked in a run. "You kind of have to get it in gear again. You can't just wait to the end part of the game and win that way.
"You've got to put up runs and put up runs early."
It was the Tigers' third straight loss and in the previous two, they trailed virtually right out of the gate (2-0 in the first on Saturday, 5-0 after two innings Sunday).
For a team that’s scored the fourth fewest runs in the American League so far, it’s an almost insurmountable climb.
"If you carry yesterday's game into this one, yeah, it gets pretty heavy," manager AJ Hinch said. "We shouldn't be doing that. We should be more mature than that. It is part of the overall analysis, but it shouldn't be something that in our clubhouse guys are worried about. Because yesterday had nothing to do with today."
BOX SCORE: Pirates 7, Tigers 4
Still, it's human nature to press when you're struggling and maybe press harder when you keep falling behind.
"Sometimes you might try to do too much," Vierling said. "But it's early in the year. We will figure it out. I know guys are still trying to figure things out as we go and we have a young lineup, too. We're all figuring stuff out. But you can sometimes put too much pressure on yourself.
"But just learn from these moments and realize you don't have to put any extra pressure on yourself. It's just another at-bat."
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Olson breezed through the first inning on 11 pitches, eight strikes, with two strikeouts. But he was a completely different pitcher from the second inning on. He seemed to lose the command of his fastball and he was falling behind one batter after another.
"Obviously I didn't do a good job getting ahead in counts," Olson said. "Can't be successful when you are doing that. ...The main thing was falling behind in counts. I become a little more predictable and they took advantage of that."
The Pirates, who are now 9-2 and one of the hottest teams in the game, got to Olson for six runs and nine hits in 4.1 innings. He walked three and hit another. The Pirates put nine balls in play with exit velocities of 100 mph or harder, six of them 103 mph or harder.
Unable to command his four-seamer, Olson started throwing more two-seam fastballs. Both were hit hard. He had little feel for his changeup, either. He ended up throwing mostly sliders, and even though he was able to get more of them over the plate, the efficiency of the pitch was wildly inconsistent. His average spin rate on a slider is just under 3,000 rpm (2,989). On Monday, it was as low as 2,600 rpm and averaged 2,811.
"I felt really good (in the first inning)," Olson said. "My body felt really good. It felt like I was moving really good. But in the second inning, for whatever reason, it just fell off. From then on it was a battle to get in the zone."
Olson said he and the pitching coaches will look into whether something in his mechanics got out of whack, but he doesn't think that was the case.
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"I'm pretty sure it's not (mechanical)," he said. "It's going to be me making a more conscious effort to make better pitches in the zone."
The bottom of the Pirates’ batting order did most of the damage against Olson. Connor Joe walked, singled and doubled and knocked in two. Jared Triolo had two hits and two RBI. No. 9 hitter Joey Bart had a two-run single (that hit off the second base bag) in the third-run second inning.
Olson put up a zero in the fourth, which earned him the fifth inning. But that didn’t go well. He faced four hitters and they all scorched baseballs – Andrew McCutchen, double (100 mph), Rowdy Tellez, single (106 mph), Joe, double (104 mph) and Triolo, ground out, 104 mph.
Night over.
"They did a good job of making contact and the contact put pressure on him," Hinch said. "He had to pitch with a lot of guys on base. He was just missing when he was missing, but the pressure they put on him was really the difference. I thought he settled down a little bit (in the fourth) but things unraveled at the end of his outing."
The Tigers actually broke on top. Pirates' starter Mitch Keller walked Parker Meadows and Spencer Torkelson in the top of the first and Colt Keith delivered a two-out, RBI single. Torkelson was thrown out at third by left fielder Bryan Reynolds to end the inning. It was the sixth runner the Tigers have had thrown out on the bases in 10 games.
Singles by Vierling and Javier Báez in the fourth inning set up a sacrifice fly by Zach McKinstry.
"We're playing hard," Hinch said. "I know when you don't hit early there's a little lull and it's tough sometimes. We'll figure it out. Our guys will warm up soon enough. We played a better game today than we have. It still wasn't enough.
"We have an early game (Tuesday) and we'll be ready to play."
Outfielder Wenceel Perez, just called up from Triple-A Toledo Monday to replace the injured Andy Ibanez, made his big-league debut. He lined out to right field in the seventh and finished the game in center field.
In the eighth, he came to bat against former All-Star lefty closer Aroldis Chapman in a big situation. The Tigers had pushed across an unearned run (RBI single by Vierling), cutting the deficit to four runs and the bases were loaded. Chapman struck out Javier Baez and then he punched out Perez, freezing him with a 101-mph sinker.
Welcome to the big leagues.
"I was ready," Perez said. "That's the mindset you have to have when you are facing a pitcher like that. Yes, I just got here, but I'm here and I have a bat. I'll be ready to hit."
Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, if he grew up watching Chapman pitch.
"Yes, for sure," he said, smiling. "I pitched with him in Play Station."
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