Detroit – Friday night, top of the seventh inning. The Tigers had just taken ace Tarik Skubal off the hook, scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth to grab a 4-3 lead.
Drew Anderson, who got the final out in the sixth, was entrusted to hold that lead for at least another inning. And the second hitter he faced in the seventh was the White Sox Miguel Vargas.
You might recall, Vargas broke the Tigers’ hearts in Chicago on May 29 by hitting a two-strike, two-out, walk-off home run off a mis-executed kick-change from Anderson.
“Players have good memories about stuff like that,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Especially a big swing like that.”
But if Anderson was experiencing any latent PTSD Friday night, he didn’t show it. He punched out Vargas with three fastballs – 97.5 mph, 96.5 mph, 96.7 mph.
Asked if he left the kick-change out of the bag for that at-bat because of what happened in Chicago, Anderson shook his head no.
“It just looked like he couldn’t hit a fastball,” he said. “Just read and react, that’s all it is.”
Don’t look now but Anderson, who got his four outs Friday to earn the win, has pitched his way into a unique, high-leverage role in the Tigers’ bullpen. Not a traditional set-up man, by any means.
“The way Drew has changed the makeup of our pen is figuring out how long he can go once he comes in,” Hinch said. “You get used to using a pitcher for one inning, but that’s doing a great disservice to Drew Anderson and what he can do to get outs.”
Hinch thought about extending Anderson through the eighth inning on Friday, letting him work through Colton Montgomery and two scheduled right-handed hitters. But there is a tradeoff to that.
“I try to be creative with him so he can continue to go,” Hinch said. “If I let him go 2.1 innings, what does that cost us? It costs us Saturday and Sunday. There is always a balancing act on how much to deploy his pitches, knowing the rest period comes afterward.”
Anderson threw 16 pitches on Friday. He was available for Hinch in the finale Sunday if he was needed.
“For him more than any other reliever, if we need him for the fourth, fifth and sixth, great. Then I can stretch the game,” Hinch said. “But if I need him late, I know he can do a one-inning stint at a moment’s notice. It’s 97 mph with three other pitches. He’s got a lot to offer. I don’t want to minimally use him.
“I also know once I get him to 35, 40, 45 pitches, there is a rest period coming.”
Just as Hinch is learning how to be creative with how he uses Anderson, Anderson has had to learn how to be creative, or judicious, with his main weapon – the kick-change.
“His development in the pen has centered around continuing to be creative,” Hinch said. “He’s so good at landing first-pitch off-speed and the word is out on the changeup. There’s enough video out there showing the funky swings. The other side is doing their advance work, too.”
Anderson, as he showed in the Vargas at-bat Friday, is learning to trust his other weapons. The fastball is a legit power pitch. He is generating a 34% whiff rate and 38% strikeout rate with his curveball. That’s on top of the 37.5% whiff rate and 38.9% strikeout rate with the kick-change.
“With Drew, it’s really easy to fall in love with his best weapon,” Hinch said. “And most of the time you should. But every now and then you need to do something a little differently to give the hitting guys on the other side some pause on how you’re going to pitch. You can’t always throw first-pitch curveballs. You can’t always pitch backwards. You can’t always throw changeups in two-strike counts.
“Hitters are too good at making adjustments at this level.”
Anderson has learned that through some painful lessons.
“Drew is really good,” Hinch said. “He’s got weapons. He’s got pitch-ability. He can miss bats. He’s got velo. There’s a lot to like about Drew no matter where we are in the game. … It’s good to see him be unpredictable.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
Yankees at Tigers
➤Series: Three games at Comerica Park
➤First pitch: Monday – 6:10 p.m.; Tuesday-Wednesday – 6:40 p.m.
➤TV/radio: Monday-Wednesday – Detroit Sports Net, 97.1, 107.9
Scouting report
➤Probables: Monday – RHP Gerrit Cole (2-1, 2.57) vs. LHP Framber Valdez (3-5, 4.09); Tuesday – LHP Carlos Rodon (3-2, 3.50) vs. RHP Casey Mize (2-4, 2.58); Wednesday – LHP Ryan Weathers (2-5, 4.13) vs. LHP Tarik Skubal (3-3, 3.02).
➤Cole, Yankees: This will be his sixth start back after being out all last season recovering from Tommy John surgery and he’s been as tough as ever, holding hitters to a .196 average and .614 OPS. The four-seam fastball still rings at 96-97 mph. The slider still misses bats (35.5% whiff) and lefties are going to get the changeup and knuckle-curve. The only change in his arsenal is the absence of the cutter. He hasn’t thrown it this season.
➤Valdez, Tigers: The Tigers have lost six of his last seven starts, and that includes three quality starts in that span. His last start was emblematic of how his season has gone. Back in Houston, he gave up just one run in six innings, but he labored, giving up six hits and three walks, He won some big at-bats, stranding five runners in scoring position. His history against the Yankees has been a mixed bag. In six regular season starts, the Yankees have crushed him (7.22 ERA, 1.9 WHIP). But in Game 2 of the 2022 ALCS, Valdez shut them out for seven innings.
— Chris McCosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ Drew Anderson carving niche as multi-inning leverage reliever
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
