There are many imperfections with this team, and we’ve seen them throughout the first month of the season. The back end of the bullpen, really the bullpen in general, has been very unreliable. The offense will go quiet at inopportune times, but for all the frustrations that we have, this is still a group that’s going to play until the final out. It felt like Detroit blew their opportunity in the seventh inning when they had bases loaded with one out. Riley Greenw struck out on three pitches, and Spencer Torkelson lined out, but they just kept scratching.
It will get lost in the shuffle, but Framber Valdez deserves a lot of credit for how he battled back in that outing. For the first half of today’s start, he looked like he did five days ago in Cincinnati when he was having a lot of trouble locating. He was throwing strikes, but Atlanta was spraying the ball on two-strike counts, and there was a lot of traffic on the basepaths. This was not a day when Detroit could afford to have a starter only go four innings. They needed some length, and for him to turn that into a quality start is a testament to his experience at this level. You’re not going to have your A+ stuff all the time. He figured out a way to adjust.
There was nothing overly fancy about Detroit’s eighth-inning rally, other than Kerry Carpenter's lead-off triple to straightaway centerfield. Matt Vierling, who had a nice day today, hit a hard grounder over the third baseman‘s head for a double. Detroit drew a few walks, and Gleyber Torres hit a sacrifice fly to put Detroit in front. That is the kind of situational hitting that this offense sometimes lacks. Yeah, I think we all would’ve loved to have seen the big swing that would’ve put Detroit up by several runs, but you take a lead however you can get it. And the fact that the offense was able to tack on a few insurance runs late may have been the most encouraging part.
Atlanta is not a team that is going to have many blowup innings. They’ve been playing really well. Even though this is the last day of April, the way this game was played felt like a playoff game. Everything was extremely tense. Thankfully, Detroit came out on top today and salvaged a win in this series. The fact that they’re able to come back home at .500, considering all the nonsense that we saw on this road trip, is relatively encouraging. There’s a lot to clean up, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Detroit is back home tomorrow against the Texas Rangers. Jack Flaherty will be taking the ball and trying to figure something out after a couple of brutal starts. MacKenzie Gore will be pitching for the Texas Rangers. It will be his first start against the Tigers as a member of the Rangers, though he did have an outing last year in Washington, D.C., as a member of the Nationals.