Olson’s outstanding outing goes to waste in loss
Parker Meadows hit a high fly ball to right field in the third inning.
Adam Frazier, a second baseman making his first start in right field this season for the Kansas City Royals, tracked the 344-foot fly ball to the wall. He leaped at the wall, stuck his glove beyond the field of play and caught it, robbing Meadows of a two-run home run.
“It was a good play,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
Even worse for the Detroit Tigers?
After the catch, Frazier threw the ball to first base and doubled up Javier Báez for an inningending double play. The Tigers returned to the dugout hitless and trailing, instead of grabbing a one-run lead on a two-run swing.
“It’s the difference between two runs and no runs,” Hinch continued. “It looked like the wind held it up a little bit, but I couldn’t tell. He made a good play on it. He made a great play at a big moment.”
The Tigers picked up a hit in the next inning but lost, 8-0, to the Royals in Friday’s opener of a three-game series at Comerica Park, with the Royals scoring seven runs in the ninth inning. Right-hander Reese Olson allowed just one run across seven innings with eight strikeouts, but he didn’t get any run support from the offense.
The Tigers (14-12) were shut down by Royals right-hander Seth Lugo.
Lugo, an ex-reliever whom the Tigers expressed some interest in as a free agent over the past two years, racked up a career-high nine strikeouts.
“He’s a throwback to the guy who pitches, moves the ball around and changes speeds,” Hinch said. “He’s off to a good start this season because he knows how to pitch. He knows how to disrupt timing, he knows how to pitch backwards, and he can pitch to the margins. He’s very, very effective.”
He allowed three hits: Mark Canha’s single and Spencer Torkelson’s infield single in the fourth inning and Matt Vierling’s single in the seventh inning. He also issued just two walks: to Báez in the third inning and Colt Keith in the seventh inning.
The Tigers had two on and two out for Báez in the seventh inning, but he popped out to end the threat.
“He was just hitting his spots,” Keith said. Lugo, a nine-year MLB veteran, mixed eight different pitches, throwing a four-seam fastball, sinker, curveball, slider, slurve, changeup, sweeper and cutter. He threw 65 of his 103 pitches for strikes. The 34-year-old struck out
four of the first five batters he faced, plus he had two strikeouts against both Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter, the Tigers’ best lefthanded hitters.
The robbery of Meadows in the third inning made the difference, at least until the ninth inning.
Late-inning struggles
Royals right-handed reliever John Schreiber, a southeast Michigan native who pitched for the Tigers in 2019-20, replaced Lugo for the eighth inning. He sent down the first two batters before Greene reached safely on a throwing error by the third baseman.
Canha followed with a single.
Spencer Torkelson stepped to the plate with runners on first and second base with two outs, but he struck out swinging to strand the runners. He whiffed at a middle-middle sweeper for the first strike, fouled a middle-down fastball for the second strike and chased a downand-away
sweeper for the third strike.
The fans at Comerica Park booed Torkelson after the strikeout for squandering the big opportunity in the eighth.
The Royals increased their lead to 3-0 in the ninth inning, when left-handed reliever Tyler Holton — known for throwing strikes — hit back-to-back batters with the bases loaded. He plunked Frazier and Kyle Isbel, both with upand-in sinkers, after a pair of singles followed by a walk.
“He really didn’t have command,” Hinch said. “He rarely misfires at all . ... Back-to-back lefties, those are tough matchups for him, and he just sailed the ball to their elbows, so I got him out of there.”
The fans, once again, booed during Holton’s walk back to the dugout after being removed from the game. His replacement, right-handed reliever Will Vest, immediately gave up a tworun single that pushed the Royals’ lead to 5-0.
Bobby Witt Jr. drove in another two runs with a triple to right-center field, making it 7-0.
It could’ve been an inside-the-park home run because the ball got past Carpenter’s reach in right-center field, but Witt was held up at third base. He then scored on a sacrifice fly for an 8-0 advantage.
Five runs were charged to Holton; two runs were charged to Vest.
Reese’s peace
Olson completed seven innings to keep the game close in his fifth start this season.
The 24-year-old, who lowered his ERA to 3.18, allowed just one run on three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts, throwing 62 of 100 pitches for strikes. The lone run scored on a sacrifice fly in the third inning.
“It makes my job a lot easier when I can throw strike one,” Olson said. “I think that’s just a product of having my changeup and my slider around the zone more. It makes it a lot easier when I’m able to get ahead.”
The Royals loaded the bases with Frazier’s single, Isbel’s single and Maikel Garcia’s walk. After that, Witt hit Olson’s inside sinker 309 feet to center field, deep enough for Frazier to tag up and score for a 1-0 lead
Olson kept the Royals in check throughout the rest of his outing, and he finished strong by retiring the final four batters he faced. He sent down three of those batters with strikeouts, all on changeups: Michael Massey (called strike) in the sixth inning and Frazier (called strike) and Isbel (swinging strike) to end the seventh.
He generated 13 whiffs on 45 swings with three fastballs, four sliders and six changeups. He also landed his fastball and slider for called strikes.
His fastball averaged 93.6 mph.
“He finished strong,” Hinch said. “I thought his changeup was really good. He’s always got the spin. He threw some finish fastballs.”