'All or nothing': Tigers blow 1-0 lead in ninth inning, drop opener vs. Yankees
Chris McCosky
New York — It must be like déjà vu for Reese Olson. Or maybe he just accepts it as normal now.
The Tigers’ right-hander pitched another gem Friday night, blanking the Yankees on two hits over five innings. But, as has been the case all season, he didn’t get much backing from his offense.
"It's part of it," Olson said after the Yankees rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and walked it off against the Tigers, 2-1, at Yankee Stadium. "I'm sure I'll have some outings throughout the year when we'll put up 10 runs and I'll give up five and we'll get the win. It's just part of baseball."
The Yankees had been held without a hit from the sixth through the eighth, but in the ninth against Jason Foley, balls started to find holes. Aaron Judge led off with a ground ball single. Alex Verdugo followed with a one-strike bunt single. Giancarlo Stanton, who had struck out three times previously, laced a game-tying double into the right-field corner.
With the winning run on third base and first base open, manager AJ Hinch called his infield together at the mound.
"There were no outs and we had a mess on our hands," Hinch said. "I just wanted to settle the defense and make sure they knew the ball was going to be hit on the ground somewhere, probably multiple times if we got past Rizzo."
BOX SCORE: Yankees 2, Tigers 1
They didn't. Anthony Rizzo punched one through the drawn-in infield. Game over.
"We needed to play the infield in, obviously," Hinch said. "It was all or nothing."
It was Foley's first blown save in 10 chances this season.
"It just happens," Olson said. "It's a long season. I trust our bullpen. I'll put them up against anyone."
In his six starts, Olson limited his opponent to two runs or less five times. But in all of those starts, he got an average of 2.35 runs per game. The Tigers mustered only three runs total while he was in the game, five after he’d departed.
That’s why he came in winless despite a stingy 3.18 ERA, now 2.70.
"I wouldn't say we're pressing when Reese pitches," said Riley Greene, who had three of the Tigers' five hits, plus a walk. "We're playing baseball. Reese went out and pitched really well and we didn't give him any runs. It's always tough. But it is what it is."
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Olson, admittedly without his best stuff, handled the dangerous right-handed Yankees hitters (Judge, Stanton, Gleyber Torres) with effective two-seamers and sliders. The lefties (Juan Soto, Verdugo, Rizzo) got a steady diet of four-seamers and changeups.
The two hits were singles. He walked two and struck out five. He only got seven swings and misses but 20 called strikes — seven with the four-seamer, six with the two-seamer.
"Anytime I can put up zeros like that, I view it as a good outing," Olson said. "Obviously, I didn't feel great. I didn't have a feel for my changeup much. I know it was around the zone enough to mix speeds. But it didn't have the same life."
The Yankees made him work (88 pitches in five innings with 18 foul balls). And the 11 balls they put in play had a robust average exit velocity of 96.7 mph.
Thus, with the top of the Yankees’ lineup due up in the sixth, Hinch went to his bullpen and came within three outs of making that one run stand up.
Right-hander Alex Faedo was outstanding in the sixth, striking out Anthony Volpe, Soto and Judge.
He walked Verdugo to start the seventh and then struck out Stanton. With left-handed hitting Rizzo and Austin Wells coming up, Hinch brought in lefty Andrew Chafin.
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Chafin went off-script briefly, walking Rizzo. But he ended the inning getting righty-swinging Gleyber Torres to bounce one right to Keith behind the bag and he turned it into a fast 4-3 double-play.
Hinch saw a pocket for right-hander Shelby Miller in the eighth. He dispatched Wells and Oswaldo Cabrera but walked Volpe. That set up a duel with Soto. After falling behind 3-1, Miller painted the inside corner with a 94-mph fastball and then got Soto to pop out to Baez at short.
It was in the grasp.
"One-run game and that leaves you vulnerable to things like that ninth inning," Hinch said. "It's not easy. Those guys are making pitches and they played pretty good defensive behind it. But when you look back at close games, it's about taking advantage of opportunities.
"They did it a run better than we did."
The Tigers had a plan to be aggressive and put pressure on Yankees starter Marcus Stroman. Mark Canha was running on a pitch in the first inning and avoided a potential double-play on Wenceel Perez’s hard-struck grounder to second and was in scoring position with two outs.
In the second, Zach McKinstry walked and stole second with two outs.
In the third, Greene singled and got to second on a ground out.
But in each case, the RBI hit was lacking. Stroman got Kerry Carpenter to ground out in the first, struck out Javier Baez on three pitches in the second and got Perez to fly out in the third.
Finally, in the sixth, the Tigers scratched across a run. Stroman, who nibbled the edges of the strike zone the entire game, finally paid a price.
Greene singled and with one out, Stroman walked Wenceel Perez and Carpenter to load the bases. He got two fast strikes on rookie Keith. But Keith battled, fouled off a couple tough pitches and worked an eight-pitch walk to force Greene home.
The seven walks was a season high for the Tigers.
But that was it. Right-hander Ian Hamilton struck out Spencer Torkelson and got McKinstry to ground out to minimize damage.
The Tigers left a lot of runners on the bases. They went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners stranded.
"We got Stroman out of there by being patient in the sixth and making sure we didn't try to do too much," Hinch said. "But we would have loved to tack on. That was the story of the night. We had a couple opportunities where they were able to make some pitches and get the big out and that was the separation we needed."
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