How Kahnle got his signature pitch back

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck's Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

DETROIT -- Tommy Kahnle had just completed his task Wednesday, having finished the sixth inning with the Tigers’ lead intact thanks to a Starling Marte double play. Kahnle was muttering to himself on his way off the mound, maybe about the Mark Vientos RBI single that brought the Mets within a run, or the Jeff McNeil walk that followed, but Kahnle was heading back to the dugout having done his job.

The problem was that Kyle Finnegan was heading back to the dugout, too. He had been warming up in the bullpen to follow Kahnle in the seventh inning.

“The way we mapped it out, the only hiccup was Finnegan warming up and then just having that [right groin] tightness,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “And so we quickly had to audible to get Tommy back out there.”

For a manager who likes to plan several innings out, it’s a big deal.

Instead of three batters and out, Kahnle had to sit down, get back up and amp up the energy again. He sprinted back out like nothing had happened.

“Nothing crazy,” Kahnle said. “I mean, you have to always be ready for situations like that. It's not something that I would say is out of the ordinary, but it's definitely not common. Just hoping that [Finnegan’s] OK.

“Same mindset, just grab it and go again. Obviously, that was not the move we were looking to do, but it ended up working out. As long as we get the W at the end of the day.”

If anything, it beat the alternative of the past few weeks, when Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter were trying to find spots for Kahnle to get his work in and try to get out of his midseason struggles.

Few relievers go through a full season without a slump, but the rise and fall of Kahnle was extreme on both ends. For three months, his one-year deal looked like a bargain for the Tigers, who threw him everywhere from the closer mix to multi-inning setup. He ended June with a 1.77 ERA and just 19 hits allowed over 35 2/3 innings. His changeup, thrown nearly 85 percent of the time, was almost unhittable.

Then came a July 2 meltdown in Washington: Five batters, four hits, a walk and five runs, turning a one-run Tigers lead into a loss. He regrouped for a few outings, including a save in Cleveland, then came a brutal ninth inning in Seattle and three consecutive outings with runs allowed, including losses five days apart.

“I've had spells in the past where it's been about a week or two, the changeup's kinda off, and then I kind of correct it. But this one, I was, I dunno,” Kahnle said. “Yeah, this one was a bad one.”

Opponents hit under .200 against Kahnle’s changeup through three months, including .138 (4-for-29) in June with an exit velocity of 80.8 miles per hour. They hit .500 (15-for-30) off Kahnle’s changeup with four homers and a 94.8 mph exit velocity in July.

Kahnle and the coaches had to scramble to figure out what had gone wrong. Kahnle watched video back to 2019, when he was a hard-throwing reliever with a good changeup. He needed to get out of some habits that made him a dominant changeup specialist. He found it not with his pitches, but his form.

“I wasn't staying tall, essentially,” he said. “I was getting too hunched over and it was causing me to have to come back and then everything just kinda goes out of whack.”

After giving up runs in three consecutive outings again last month, Kahnle tried standing up straight and not worrying about pitches. He tossed a scoreless inning with a walk and a strikeout Aug. 15 in Minnesota.

“Changeup was completely different,” he said, “but I was like, 'I have to do something different to try to fix it.' I feel like that really clicked.”

Since then, Kahnle has six scoreless innings on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Most of those were in lower-leverage situations. By coming back out on Wednesday and getting two more outs, Kahnle earned his first hold since Aug. 4.

“Him being able to pitch under pressure, he is a real key part of this,” Hinch said, “because you’re going to need them all, whether it’s to win a series or put together this sprint that we want to do for the last three or four weeks and go where we want to go. It’s got to be more than a two-man show, and Tommy can be a big part of that, and we’re reminded of it by how good he has been for those six outings.”

Said Kahnle: “It's nice, definitely nice to get back to being the pitcher I was for the last three years.”