Tigers support Alex Faedo with 17-hit attack in 9-5 win over Twins
James Hawkins
Detroit — Alex Faedo was looking to make his case to stay in the Tigers’ rotation.
After the right-hander was called up from Toledo and stifled the Padres in a spot start on July 23, Faedo was sent back down. A wild 10-day stretch ensued leading up to the Aug. 1 trade deadline and Faedo ended up making his next start at Double-A Erie before he found his way back to Detroit.
“I do think this guy deserves a runway, to get a few starts in a row,” manager AJ Hinch said before Wednesday’s 9-5 win against the AL Central-leading Twins at Comerica Park.
“If you look back at his time in the big leagues so far, there's been some disconnected times, whether it be doubleheaders and injuries. He comes up in a spot start (on July 23) and he does well. He hasn't really gotten as much runway it feels like he should. So hopefully he grabs hold of this opportunity.
“We want him to settle in. We don't want him feeling you're pitching for your job every five days. If you have a bad game, you're going to get sent out. But at the same time, you've got to demonstrate that you can hold down one of the rotation spots.”
Against the Twins, Faedo did what was expected of him: He put the Tigers in position to win. He struck out five and gave up four hits in 4⅔ innings. He generated 10 swing and misses with eight sliders and two changeups. While his outing was marred by two second-inning home runs, he scrapped and exited with a lead that the bullpen held and the offense backed with a 17-hit attack.
“I think it was kind of a grind it night,” Faedo said. “Second inning, I thought both pitches — I talked to (catcher Eric) Haase about it, they were both well executed. Good hitters put some good swings on it. I was able to throw up a couple zeros after that and to almost get through the fifth was good.
“I thought the bullpen, the defense, Haase did an excellent job. It's a big team win for us.”
The Tigers (51-63) provided Faedo with early run support from the jump. After Riley Greene drew a four-pitch walk and Matt Vierling singled off Twins starter Bailey Ober in the first inning, Kerry Carpenter ripped a two-out, RBI single to right field. Max Kepler couldn’t come up with Carpenter’s scorcher cleanly and the ball trickled past him, allowing Vierling to score and the Tigers to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead.
It didn’t last long. The Twins ambushed Faedo in the second inning with a pair of big blasts. Carlos Correa launched a fastball 421 feet into the bullpen in deep left-center field. Three batters later, Ryan Jeffers won an eight-pitch battle against Faedo by roping a two-out, two-strike double down the left-field line.
That extended the inning and brought Joey Gallo to the plate. Faedo got ahead of Gallo and had a chance to escape further damage. Instead, Gallo sent another Faedo fastball out of the park — a 413-foot missile into the right-field seats that put the Twins up, 3-2.
The Tigers wasted little time clawing back with a pair of clutch hits. With runners on the corners, Greene plated Zach McKinstry, who doubled, with a two-out hit up the middle. Vierling followed with a two-out RBI single of his own, smacking a first-pitch slider into left-center field that put the Tigers back in front, 4-3.
Faedo bounced back and buckled down after the rough second inning. He allowed one baserunner in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings, and was on the verge of finishing the fifth before a two-out walk ended his day.
The lone threat he faced during that stretch came in the third, when he stranded Jorge Polanco at third base by striking out Edouard Julien with a slider, giving the Tigers the shutdown inning they needed.
“I think especially after you give up three in one inning, you’ve got to really bear down, throw up a lot of zeros after that. We did that,” Faedo said. “Obviously I want to go deeper, but same time I just had to do what I could.”
Hinch said the plan is to give Faedo another turn in the rotation against the Twins again during the team’s upcoming nine-game road trip.
“He's going to pitch. I told him he's got the same lineup he's probably going to face unless they mix something up in five days,” Hinch said. “Other than a couple of fastballs that were in areas where they can handle, that's really what he got burned by. The only reason he came out was because he walked his last guy, and we had a matchup that we liked.
“But the execution stuff was really good. He's had a very weird last couple of weeks where he had a huge layoff then he pitched in Double-A, tried to build himself back up. I'm not even sure where his stamina is…but he gave us when he could. The crooked number early is unfortunate for him. He did throw the ball better than that.”
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The Tigers extended their lead in the fifth on an opposite-field home run by Spencer Torkelson. After striking out swinging on three pitches his first two at-bats, Torkelson got the best of Ober the third time around by smashing a changeup 380 feet to right-center field to make it 5-3.
After the Twins cut the deficit to one on an RBI double by Willi Castro in the sixth, the Tigers once again responded. Torkelson led off the seventh by hammering an 81-mph curveball off Jordan Balazovic 418 feet to left-center field before Haase tacked on an RBI single to make it 7-4.
“It felt great,” Torkelson said of his third multi-homer game of the season. “I think it happened naturally. I felt myself kind of coming off the ball, so I really want to emphasize staying on the fastball to the big part of the field. I saw that off-speed pitch up (from Ober) and wanted to stay on it.
“I think a lot of trust goes into that. Trusting that when I can stay to the big part of the field and knowing that I might get jammed on an inside pitch, but I'm going to do damage with a mistake out over the plate.”
The Tigers added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth. Vierling tripled and scored on a wild pitch and Torkelson scored from second after Balazovic couldn’t corral a throw at first on an infield single by Carpenter.
Those runs were nearly needed during a tense finish. Trey Wingenter gave up a single and back-to-back walks to load the bases with two outs before Jose Cisnero was summoned. Cisnero gave up an RBI single before sealing the win by striking out Correa.
Haase, McKinstry, Vierling and Miguel Cabrera finished with three hits apiece. Cabrera took sole possession of 19th place on the MLB’s all-time hit list and passed Robin Yount with hits No. 3,143, 3,144 and 3,145 of his career — a third-inning single and a fifth-inning single off Ober and a seventh-inning single off Balazovic.
“We had a really good approach today with some results,” Hinch said. “Obviously the few homers here or there, some big base hits to tack on runs. As comfortable as you feel sometimes in this game, those extra runs sure made a difference in the ninth. A lot of guys had good days.”
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @jamesbhawkins