Pittsburgh — With another pitcher, they might call it pitching backwards. But with reliever Alex Lange, good luck trying to figure out the back from the front.
“I just pitch,” said Lange, who has emerged as the Tigers’ primary set-up man. “That’s all I do. I just go out and pitch, get outs, execute, throw stuff in the zone that we’re going to get outs on, and trust my catcher.”
Except he goes about it in a most atypical way. Your typical late-inning leverage reliever with upper-90s heat will pitch off the fastball. But with Lange, the heater is a secondary pitch.
“The fastest way to get hit in this league is to throw too many fastballs to fastball hitters in fastball counts,” manager AJ Hinch said. “The league has shifted to more of a 50-50 league (50% fastballs, 50% breaking balls and off-speed) and our pitchers have adjusted that way, especially when it’s a huge strength.”
Lange pitched a scoreless eighth inning Tuesday night, protecting a two-run lead. He threw six curveballs, three change-ups and two two-seamers. Pirates rookie Jack Suwinski got the full platter — curve, change, change, curve — and ended up with a tap back to the mound. Inning over.
“That’s kind of the goal,” Lange said. “I want to be unpredictable throwing three pitches in any count.”
Just don’t call it pitching backwards.
“There are some guys you want to pitch backwards with,” catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “But when your best pitches are softer — I mean, no discredit to his fastball; his fastball is great — it’s just he’s got elite pitches across the board. You feel good with anything he throws.
“You feel like his breaking ball and change-up are just that good to where you can throw them quite a bit.”
Lange, who has allowed one earned run in his last 12 outings, is only keeping three pitches in his toolbox these days. He’s mostly ditched his four-seam fastball, instead staying with a two-seam sinker that sits at 96 mph but can get to 97 and 98 when he needs it.
“We’ve gotten great feedback from him and the hitters that it’s the right way to go,” Hinch said.
Lange has been throwing the two-seamer 21% of the time, holding hitters to a .222 average (4-for-18). Not bad for essentially his third pitch.
He’s got a devastatingly unique curveball (85 mph) that until recently, Statcast read as a slider. That’s his primary pitch, throwing it 45% of the time. Hitters are 4-for-37 off it with a 56.5% swing-and-miss rate.
His second most-used pitch (26%) is a firm change-up (89-90 mph) that has late, whiffle-ball movement that he can manipulate to both sides of the plate. Hitters are 3-for-21 against it with a 47.8% swing-and-miss rate.
The results dictate the usage.
“When you’ve got a guy who is that confident and comfortable with his off-speed stuff to throw it in any count, and hitters also have to keep in mind he has 97 mph with movement, it’s pretty tough,” Barnhart said. “His change-up is wild (movement-wise). His fastball and change-up are really similar in their movement patterns, but it’s 97 and 90 coming out of the same spot.
“I’m glad he’s on my team.”
Lange before the game Tuesday was still chewing on his performance Sunday in New York. He walked two, including DJ LaMahieu with the bases loaded in a 2-2 game.
“Got to throw strikes,” he said. “I cost the team a game. Walking in runs is no good. I’ve got to be better and make them earn their way on.”
Walks have been the only smudge on his overall body of work so far this season. He’s allowed just two more hits (13) than walks (11) in 23.1 innings.
“When you have secondary pitches with his type of velocity that he can command, it makes it very difficult,” Hinch said. “He can control the timing of the hitters very well. Alex is a very good reliever that I can deploy at any time and feel good about it.”
Willi the wonder
It wasn’t too awfully long ago when the Tigers were legitimately concerned that Willi Castro couldn’t throw well enough to play on the left side of the infield. Look at him now.
Castro threw out another runner from the outfield Tuesday night, nailing Jack Suwinski from left field trying to stretch a single into a double. It was his third outfield assist in four games.
“His throwing is impactful,” Hinch said. “He’s made some really good throws just on this trip alone. When I talk about outfield instincts or outfield play, everybody assumes I’m talking about routes or perfection in how he plays balls off the wall. And as soon as he makes a mistake, he gets critiqued quite a bit.
“He creates outs and that’s a good thing. He’s very aggressive. He has zero fear. It’s one of the most confident areas of his game.”
In New York, Castro threw out Aaron Judge at second and LeMahieu at third.
“I think teams will start to take notice,” Hinch said. “They’re not going to be able to take extra bases with him out there.”
Small tweak, big gain
Barnhart did a little video deep dive on himself Tuesday. He’d been in a 10-game offensive funk, with four hits in 34 at-bats and 10 strikeouts. His average dropped from .272 to .226.
“Yeah, I’d been grinding a little bit at the plate and I found something on video from like five years ago that I’d been searching for,” he said. “It helped me out a lot.”
Barnhart went back and broke down his swing from at-bats when he was driving the ball with some authority. He saw he was doing something with his front leg that he hasn’t been doing recently.
“Just a mechanical tweak with my lower body,” he said. “I felt like my direction was a little crampy. Something with my front knee and getting the direction going in the right way. I looked at some balls I hit hard over my career. I saw it a little bit last year and a couple of years ago, and I just kept watching and I found it.”
Barnhart, who didn’t start Wednesday, got two hits Tuesday, including an RBI double in the eighth inning.
Around the horn
… Lefty pitcher Joey Wentz still hasn’t returned to the mound after leaving his spot start with the Tigers on May 31. Hinch said Wentz has been evaluated by a couple of different doctors. “He’s got something similar to a pinched nerve,” Hinch said. “He gets a sensation through his shoulder based on what’s going on in his neck. It’s not too dissimilar to what Robbie Grossman went through, but for a pitcher on his throwing side, it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
… Starter Eduardo Rodriguez (ribcage) and reliever Jose Cisnero (shoulder) are expected to make rehab appearances with Toledo on Thursday.
… Reliever Tyler Alexander pitched two perfect innings for the Mud Hens on Tuesday. His last hurdle will be pitching in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday.
… Right-hander Rony Garcia’s next start will be pushed back a couple of days. Hinch slotted Tarik Skubal in for the finale against the Blue Jays on Sunday at Comerica Park. Hinch said he wanted to keep Skubal on a regular five-day routine.
Twitter@cmccosky