SAY IT AIN’T SO. . .

“You just worry about the pitch count. We don’t want him going much above 115, maybe top out at 120. So it’s kind of a tall task to ask him to get through the inning.”

— Tigers manager Brad Ausmus on the dilemma he had in letting Rick Porcello, who’d thrown 105 pitches through the first eight innings, complete his first career shutout last Thursday. (He needed only 10 more pitches to get the final three outs, but such is baseball today.)