The fans stood and cheered, but Reese Olson stared straight into the dugout as he walked off the mound. He "heard them," he'd say later with a smile, "but I was thinking about that walk." After retiring 15 straight and carrying a shutout into the eighth inning against the first-place Padres, Olson issued a free pass to Oscar Gonzalez and surrendered a single to the next batter. That would end his day, and mark yet another dominant start for the Tigers' rotation.
After Tommy Kahnle and Will Vest breezed through the final five batters to seal a 6-0 victory, A.J. Hinch said rather casually, "We feel like we should win every series."
Can you blame him? Since being swept in Los Angeles by the reigning world champs to start the season, the Tigers have won six of seven series. They just took two of three from the only team ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West, as they did earlier this month from the Yankees, who lead the AL East. They don't always hit, as we saw in Tuesday's 2-0 loss, and as we expected entering the season. But the Tigers are pitching even better than we might have hoped, one high-octane arm fueling the next.
On Tuesday it was Jack Flaherty, who struck out nine, walked none and paid for his one mistake. On Wednesday it was Olson, who was all but unhittable in his best start of the season. Next is Jackson Jobe, the former No. 3 pick who just might have the most devastating arsenal in the rotation. (More on that in a minute.) Then Casey Mize, the former No. 1 pick who's healthy and pitching to his pedigree. And then it rolls back over to the reigning AL Cy Young and pitching Triple Crown winner, Tarik Skubal.
The old saying in baseball is that momentum is only the next day's starting pitcher. The Tigers are proving it true. The highest ERA in Detroit's rotation belongs to Olson, who checks in at 3.29. Every other starter has an ERA that begins with 2. Aside from Keider Montero, who's been wedged into a six-man rotation while the Tigers navigate a stretch of 22 games in 23 days, Hinch is handing the ball every day to an electric arm.
The Yankees are tied for first in the American League because they lead the majors in homers. The Tigers are right there with them because, as Olson put it, "Our staff is probably the nastiest in the league." That includes the bullpen, which has an ERA of 2.70. As they mow down hitters, the Tigers are raising possibilities for this season. Even in April, they have the look of a dangerous team in October.
"Everyone in the rotation is extremely confident in themselves, as well as the bullpen," Olson said. "Everyone’s nasty, everyone knows that they have the stuff to get outs in this league. It’s cool to see when guys can just pound the strike zone and get outs like we are right now."
Olson punished it Wednesday. After struggling to get ahead of hitters in his first few starts of the season, he threw strikes on nine of his first 10 pitches. He threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of the 26 batters he faced. He got 17 whiffs between his changeup and slider. San Diego came to Detroit with the highest batting average (.276) and lowest strikeout rate (17.2 percent) in the majors, and left having hit .161 with a strikeout rate of 27.2 percent, albeit without its three-time batting champ Luis Arraez.
"It’s fun," said Olson, the 25-year-old from Georgia whose spin rates are high and heart rate is low. "On the days we’re not pitching, we're just chopping, sitting in the dugout and learning from each other, trying to see how each other think. It’s cool to be part of a staff like that."
Each one of the starters is filthy in his own way. To break it down, Olson picked their nastiest pitches: "Skube’s is the change (.179 batting average against), mine has been the change (.100) so far this year, in previous years it’s been the slider, obviously Casey’s signature pitch is that splitter (.143) and then Flare spins both breaking balls, both of those are pretty dialed, so it’s tough to say whether slider (.148) or curve (.207)."
"And then Jobe," said Olson, "he’s got it all. He’s got all the shapes, so it’s hard to single one out."
We'll go with the slider (.115) for Jobe. Or the curve, which he's thrown 31 times this season without allowing a hit.
The Tigers are getting enough hitting to make this pitching count. In fact, while the offense has run hot and cold of late, it still ranks ninth in the majors in runs scored. It's 10th in on-base percentage after finishing second to last a year ago. The big blows Wednesday came from Justyn-Henry Malloy, who broke through with his first homer of the season in the fifth and padded the lead with an RBI double in the seventh. Gleyber Torres and Dillon Dingler went deep themselves.
Malloy has a sharp eye, and some big-league pop. He's a sage hitter, at 25. He says it's not surprising to see Detroit's starters smother one lineup after the next, because "we have some real bulldogs that are really homed in on their craft and what they do."
"Obviously they’re incredibly gifted, so to be able to watch them -- and not have to face them -- is definitely a plus as a hitter," Malloy said with a laugh. "They do such a good job of attacking the zone and executing their plan."
The Tigers are executing their plan to start the season, thriving in the face of some key injuries thanks to their arms. This feels like more than a good April when conditions are favorable to pitching. On the warmest day of the spring so far in Detroit, Olson hardly broke a sweat against one of the better lineups in baseball. This looks real. On Wednesday, it sounded like a standing ovation from the crowd.
The Tigers are off and running, whether Olson could let go of that walk or not.