Tonight’s was a game to consider the pitchers, even though the Detroit Tigers racked up eleven runs and fourteen hits to put the Toronto Blue Jays away early. Whom to feature?
Well, we could start by writing about another befuddling, injury-shortened start by Francisco Liriano.
Or, we could do a sensitive treatment of the role of the spear-carrier, bucket-hauler, and mucker-out of major-league baseball, the long man who comes in and eats innings when the starter comes a-cropper early on. This would be Mike Bolsinger, who has returned to the Jays’ roster yet again to apply himself to the Augean Stables of Toronto’s injury-wracked rotation*.
*Cleaning out the Augean Stables was the fifth of tweve labours assigned to Hercules by Eurystheus, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae, at the instigation of Apollo, so that Hercules could gain atonement for killing his wife and children, which he had done in a fit of insanity cast upon him by the goddess Hera. King Augeus owned more cattle than anyone in Greece, so we can be assured that cleaning out his stables involved picking up a lot of shit. Just so is the job of the long man in the bullpen.
Or, we could focus on Michael Fulmer, who made the Toronto pitching staff’s effectiveness irrelevant by going eight innings on 101 pitches, giving up one run on two hits and walking only one batter.
Despite the fact that tonight’s game posed yet another injury problem for Toronto’s beleaguered starting rotation, and the game’s outcome was determined early by an uncomfortable Liriano’s inability to find the plate, and despite the fact that it featured another effective mop-up performance by the stoic Mike Bolsinger, in all fairness we have to start with Michael Fulmer.
Because it doesn’t really matter how many runs the Tigers cashed in against an undermanned and under-armed Toronto pitching staff, all Fulmer needed was one. Well, two.
It’s interesting that while the consideration of last night’s Toronto win over Justin Verlander highlighted that Verlander’s ascendancy may just be coming to an end, tonight’s dominating performance by the Tiger’s starter would suggest that Verlander’s heir-apparent has already emerged, and his name is Michael Fulmer.
Fulmer was one of those “prospect capital” players who came over from the New York Mets to the Tigers at the trade deadline in 2015, along with Louis Cessa, in exchange for Yoenis Cespedes. While most of the focus on this deal was on Cespedes, it’s notable that the Mets felt they could part with two such quality arms as Fulmer and Cessa, to shore up their playoff drive. Like many such deals, you wonder what kind of second-guessing might be going on in New York, given the number of injury problems the Mets have had with a crop of pitchers that two years ago looked absolutely overly-abundant.
Fulmer made his major-league debut for the Tigers at the end of April last year, quickly moving into the rotation and making himself at home, to the point where he swept all three major American League rookie-of-the-year awards, based on his record, for a middle-of-the-pack team, of 11-7, with an ERA of 3.06, over 159 innings with a WHIP of 1.12, and an opponents’ batting average of .231.
Though he can throw up to 97 MPH, Fulmer relies on control, breaking balls, and changeups to keep hitters off-balance and guessing. He does not rack up the strikeouts that a power pitcher normally would, because he’s not a power pitcher, averaging well less than a strikeout an inning, seven and a half per nine innings, a paltry number in this day and age.
And yet, Michael Fulmer gets people out, efficiently and almost monotonously. Tonight, he faced the minimum over the first three innings, on only 36 pitches. The only base runner he allowed, Kendrys Morales, who singled to centre with one out in the second, was quickly erased by a double play.
The only wobble by Fulmer tonight came in the fourth inning, when he walked Jose Bautista leading off, and then wild-pitched him to second, whence he scored on two ground balls. But by this time Liriano had imploded, the Tigers had five runs on the board, and this scratchy run eked out by the Blue Jays was but a mosquito bite inflicted on Fulmer’s broad back, annoying but not concerning.
After the Jays’ run in the fourth, they had exactly one more base runner off Fulmer, Troy Tulowitzki, who reached on an infield single to third off the glove of Nick Castellanos with one out in the eighth. Tulowitzki stayed at first while Steve Pearce flied out to left, and then was forced at second by Kevin Pillar, to end the inning and Fulmer’s commanding performance.
To recap: Morales reached on a single in the second and was erased by a double play. Bautista was walked in the fourth and came around to score without benefit of a base hit. Tulowitzki reached on an infield single in the eighth, and never advanced. That’s it. How neat is that? Eight innings, 101 pitches, three base runners, two stranded, one scored, thanks to his own wild pitch.
Maybe it’s goodbye to Detroit for Justin Verlander, but rest assured that his immense shoes in the Detroit rotation will be well-filled, barring injury, by the feet of Michael Fulmer.
Francisco Liriano added to his string of on-again, off-again performances tonight, and not in a good way. What’s worse is that he not only came out without retiring a batter in the third, but he came out with discomfort, later reported to be stiffness in his neck, that caused him to lose any command of his pitches at all. We await word on his condition.
Though Nick Castellanos homered to left on the third pitch of the game, Liriano showed no evidence of any problems in the first inning, popping up Ian Kinsler leading off and striking out Justin Upton, using only nine pitches to retire the Tigers.
Liriano gave up another run in the second inning, but it was a started-with-two-outs scratchy sort of thing, and really didn’t presage any problems to come. He retired both Martinez boys, fanning J.D. and getting Victor on a grounder to short, but then Mikie Mahtook reached on an infield single to Tulowitzki, and Liriano walked McCann following. The run scored on a little Texas Leaguer by Jose Iglesias, and the Tigers were leading 2-0, but no alarm bells were ringing.
It all changed in the third. Liriano walked Castellanos on a 3-1 pitch. He walked Justin Upton on a 3-1 pitch. He walked Miguel Cabrera on a 3-1 pitch. He went to 2-0 on J.D. Martinez, and that was enough for manager John Gibbons. Mike Bolsinger came in, bases loaded and nobody out, and give up an RBI single to J.D. Martinez that scored two, and a sacrifice fly to Mahtook that scored Cabrera after he had advanced to third on a fly ball to centre by Victor Martinez. That finished off Liriano’s record with five earned runs in only two innings, and it left Bolsinger in charge of the game and in charge of mucking out the stables.
Now, the thing about the long man, or the mucker-out, if you will, is that his main job is to eat innings, regardless. Sometimes he can do the heroic thing and hold the opponent down while his team claws its way back. Then again, he may hold them down while his team does nothing. Finally, he might suffer from a continued onslaught, but has to “suck it up” to save other, usually more valuable, arms from extra work.
Bolsinger’s outing tonight represented more of the third option. There was never a chance that the Jays were going to get back into it against the very effective Fulmer, but even if they had offfered some offensive counterattack, the Tigers were just too relentless, and the result would still have been Toronto receding in Detroit’s rear-view mirror.
After allowing all of Liriano’s base runners to score, walking James McCann, and throwing 22 pitches, Bolsinger fanned Jose Iglesias to bring the messy Tiger third to an end.
He escaped the fourth and fifth without further damage, despite giving up a hit in each inning, and then ran into his own wall in the sixth.
Iglesias, who has been hitting above his weight in this series, even if not with authority at times, led off with a single to centre, and then stole second. After going up 0-2 on Ian KInsler, Bolsinger lost the plate and walked him on four straight balls well out of the zone. Iglesias advanced to third as Castellanos flied out to centre for the first out, and then scored when Upton grounded out to second. Cabrera followed with a 1-0 shot over the fence in left centre, and it was 8-1 for the Tigers. When J. D. Martinez followed with a double, manager John Gibbons decided that his gritty curve baller had absorbed enough, and pulled him for Lucas Harrell, who got Victor Martinez to fly out to centre to end the inning.
Picking up the starter with the bases loaded and nobody out in the third inning, nobody’s idea of a picnic, Bolsinger allowed all three of Liriano’s runners to score. His own line was three and two thirds innings pitched, three runs on seven hits with four walks and three strikeouts on 75 pitches. Among these not-so-gaudy numbers, these two stand out: three and two thirds innings, and 75 pitches. These represent innings pitched and pitches thrown that were not a drain on the rest of the bullpen. They also represent the bridge from a starter leaving early to the point where that starter might have reasonably been expected to come out in a typical game.
This, then, is the value, and also the curse, of the long man: eat the innings, throw the pitches, absorb the punishment if that’s what it takes, but last as long as you can, because we don’t want to waste any more pitchers on this game than we have to.
It’s a sad fate; on the other hand, it’s a living.
And, by the way, the Tigers jumped on Aaron Loup for three more in the bottom of the eighth, so there you go.
Tomorrow has to be a better day; in the meantime, raise a glass to Mike Bolsinger, long man and muck-master. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
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