Reese Olson was incredible, Javier Baez might be a born centerfielder.
Rubber match time!
In today’s afternoon showdown, we saw Reese Olson on the mound for the Tigers, facing off against Kyle Hart, who might be a professional baseball player purely for me to write “Hart of the rotation” jokes.
In the top of the first, Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on a fielding error by Gleyber Torres, then advanced to second on a wild pitch (that struck out Gavin Sheets). Tatis got greedy, though, and the inning ended with a caught stealing as he headed for third.
In the home half, Gleyber Torres wanted to make up for his error, so he did it with a one-out solo home run.
Riley Greene singled, then Andy Ibanez singled deep enough to get Greene to third. Spencer Torkelson walked to load the bases, but a Dillon Dingler strikeout ended the inning.
Olson got the Padres out in order in the top of the second, but after a rough first, Hart calmed down and got the Tigers out 1-2-3 to end the inning.
Jose Iglesias started off the third with a single, then Tyler Wade was out on a sac bunt that advanced Iglesias to second. Weird place to throw down a sac bunt, but okay. Two outs followed and the Padres settled for one man stranded. Andy Ibanez singled in the home half and then advanced to second on a throwing error by Manny Machado, but he, too, would be left stranded.
Another 1-2-3 in the top of the fourth put the Padres back on the bench pretty quickly. Unfortunately the Tigers were three-up three-down themselves in the home half.
Top of the fifth, Olson continued to dominate, keeping his pitch count super low, his strike count super high, and sitting the Padres down in order again. With one out in the home half, Justyn-Henry Malloy his a solo homer.
That was the end of the game for Kyle Hart, who was replaced by Alek Jacob. Jacob collected the next two outs, so the Tigers would have to settle for just the single run.
Olson once again got the Padres out in order in the top of the sixth. The bottom of the inning started with Andy Ibanez getting hit by a pitch. He then successfully stole second. Too bad the Tigers went down in order after that.
You might not believe me if I told you, but in the seventh, Olson continued to dominate Padres batters with another 1-2-3. Adrian Morejon was the next Padres reliever out of the pen in the home half. Trey Sweeney got a one-out single. Malloy continued to dominate the day with a double to deep right, that allowed Sweeney to hustle home and score the Tigers’ third run of the game. Third base coach Joey Cora is going to dislocate his arm if we have more plays like this.
With another out, Riley Greene singled to bring Malloy home, helping push the Tigers to a 4-0 lead at the end of the inning.
In the top of the eight, Javier Baez ran a country mile to make a glorious catch in centerfield, and frankly, I’m sold on Baez at center (at least for this game).
Olson issued a one-out walk to Oscar Gonzalez. Iglesias then singled to right—again—and that was it for Reese Olson, who received a standing ovation from the Comerica Park crowd for his stellar efforts. His final line for the day was 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K on 85 pitches. It really seemed like he might make a shutout (and potentially a Maddux), but it just didn’t work out. Tommy Kahnle was in for the Tigers in relief. Kahnle pitched out of the jam.
Yuki Matsui was in for the Padres in the eighth, and Spencer Torkelson hit a long ball that should have, by all accounts, been a home run, but that dastardly Oscar Gonzalez caught the darned thing. Zach McKinstry singled. Dillon Dingler then homered to left for two runs.
Will Vest came out for the top of the ninth to wrap things up for the Tigers and it took him no time to get through the side.
Final: Tigers 6, Padres 0