DETROIT -- Reese Olson rarely shows his emotions on the mound. For a young pitcher, he has earned a reputation for his unflinchingly stoic look. Which made his reaction to Thursday’s game-changing swing all the more telling.
From the moment Clement connected with Olson’s hanging slider, Olson knew it was gone. It was the matchup the Tigers wanted, having intentionally walked Addison Barger after two hard-hit lineouts in the game to bring up the righty-righty matchup with Clement. But it was a mistake pitch, and Olson knew it. He didn’t need to watch the flight path, though he slowly turned anyway to watch the ball clear the left-field fence for a go-ahead three-run homer.
“I made a terrible pitch, hung a slider,” Olson said.
With that, what had been a pitching duel between Olson -- who allowed three singles through five scoreless innings -- and Toronto’s Eric Lauer turned into a Blue Jays runaway that neither Olson nor the Tigers bullpen could stop. By the ninth inning, that duel was unrecognizable, and catcher Jake Rogers was on the mound mixing knuckleballs and 80 mph fastballs in the Tigers’ eventual 11-4 loss.
“In the span of 20 minutes they scored, like, nine or 11 runs,” manager A.J. Hinch said, “and they just took it to us. As soon as one thing happened, then a ton of things happened.”
It’s the kind of everything-goes-awry game that can hound teams struggling through a rough season and a last-place finish, that creeping feeling of momentum pushing against them. It’s rare to see from a team that has been in first place all season and owns the biggest division lead of any team in the Major Leagues.
As confident as the Tigers are that this is a temporary stretch in a season that saw them running away with baseball’s best record just a couple weeks ago, it would be hard to blame them for wondering what else can go wrong on a given day.
On July 9, the Tigers had a three-game lead for baseball’s best record, a 13-game lead in the AL Central and an AL-best plus-108-run differential. Their perch atop the AL Central is still secure at eight games, but they’re a game and a half behind the Blue Jays for the AL’s best record, and their plus-65 run differential is 41 runs behind the Yankees, 52 behind the Cubs and 33 behind the Brewers.
Detroit has been outscored by a 35-13 margin over seven games since the All-Star break. The baton-passing offense that produced over the first three-plus months of the season has struggled to string together good at-bats, while the pitching has suffered from bad innings at various points of games, from Olson’s fateful sixth inning to Wednesday’s second-inning grand slam off Troy Melton to Casey Mize’s 30-pitch, two-run second inning Tuesday.
“Obviously, I think a lot of guys are trying to do a little bit too much,” Hinch said. “We’ve hit a collective rut where almost all of our guys are having an unproductive at-bat at some point. And it’s not easy to correct overnight, but we’re working, we’re trying. These guys are coming up with a good game plan. They’ve had great attitudes. They’re working. And then they get in a game, and it seems like when one bad thing happens, the dam breaks.
“And that’s what happens over two weeks. It’s been 11 days, but it feels like it’s been a lot longer. And I think maybe that’s because of the [All-Star] break, but I think a lot of it is just the way baseball is, the schedule is. We’re back at it again tomorrow. We can choose to bring that garbage into tomorrow, or we can reset and get back after it.”
Indeed, the Tigers’ spirits seemed high after Jahmai Jones’ second home run in three nights opened the scoring in the first inning. One of the few teams without a set home run celebration this season showered Jones with sunflower seeds and handed him light-up props to wave around as he made his way through the dugout.
When Spencer Torkelson homered in a three-run ninth, the mood was more subdued, with high-fives, but no props.
“Obviously with each [loss], some people might feel you sink a little bit deeper,” catcher Dillon Dingler said. “But our morale’s still good. We’re going to go out there tomorrow, we’re going to string together some hits and try to get back on the horse.”