Washington, D.C. — Watching Joey Wentz take another beating in the 6-4 loss to the Nationals in the series finale Sunday, the first natural thought is that the Tigers need to make some renovations to their starting rotation.
Then you dive into it. Spencer Turnbull, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal are all on the injured list for at least a few more weeks. Beau Brieske is also on the 60-day IL and not close to a return. So you look at what’s available at Triple-A Toledo.
Not much.
The only option on the 40-man roster is right-hander Reese Olson. He’s coming off a strong start on Saturday, pitching five shutout innings with nine strikeouts. But his ERA is over 7.0, his WHIP is 1.895 and he’s walked 22 hitters in 31.2. innings.
Garrett Hill, who started the season in the Tigers’ bullpen, is still working two- and three-inning stints.
Two other non-roster options would be right-hander Brenan Hanifee and lefty Zach Logue. In Hanifee’s last three starts, he’s been tagged for 20 hits, 11 runs in 14.2 innings with opponents hitting .328 and slugging .557.
Logue, the former Oakland Athletics pitcher, is also scuffling this month. In three starts in May, he’s allowed 14 runs (11 earned) in 10.1 innings with opponents hitting .340 and slugging .660.
So, who you got?
“Joey is a good pitcher,” manager AJ Hinch said. “This is five minutes after the game We will talk about what we can do to make him better for his next start.”
And whether that next start is with the Tigers or at Triple-A Toledo.
“Obviously, a couple early exits is concerning because it makes you empty the tank in your bullpen and that impacts the next series, as well,” Hinch said, referencing that Wentz has not finished the third inning in his last two starts. “But, we believe in Joey. He’s a really good pitcher. He’s got good stuff. Today didn’t go his way, but we need Joey.”
The first four hitters reached with seeing-eye singles in what ended up a three-run first inning against Wentz. He gave up a solo home run to backup catcher Riley Adams in the second inning and a two-run homer to Ildemaro Vargas in the third.
“I need to throw better,” Wentz said. “The last two (outings) have been pretty poor. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and try to get better.”
Wentz’s line was ugly: Two innings, 10 hits, six runs, two home runs. Wentz’s month of May has been ugly: Four starts, 16.1 innings, 28 hits, 15 earned runs.
“I need to finish some of my pitches and obviously stay out of hitter’s counts,” Wentz said. “You get behind and there’s a good chance they’re going to do damage. But for me, just don’t make it too complex. I need to throw more quality pitches.”
He didn’t want to hear about all the ground-ball and weakly-struck hits, either.
“However they get through, they got through,” he said. “You still look at the box score and it’s still really poor. The last two have been really poor. I’m not going to make the excuse of soft hit, hard hit. They hit two homers and they hit singles and they had guys on base.”
The Nationals banged out 18 hits. Adams, who also hit two doubles, had four hits. Former Tiger Jeimer Candelario also had four hits. He finished the series 6-for-13 with a homer and two RBI against his old team.
“If we could’ve stopped the bleeding somehow,” Hinch said. “Eighteen hits, 14 singles, two homers, we made a couple of errors. We didn’t do enough with our at-bats with guys in scoring position (3-for-16) and they did.”
The Tigers, to their credit, made a game of it — thanks, in part, to eight walks issued by Nationals pitchers. Also thanks to six innings of scoreless relief from Jose Cisnero, Mason Englert (2.2 innings), Tyler Alexander (1.1 innings) and Jason Foley.
The Tigers, to their credit, made a game of it — thanks, in part, to eight walks issued by Nationals pitchers.
“We just kept our composure and kept fighting,” said Akil Baddoo, who walked three times but only crossed the plate once. “We tried to chip away each and every inning. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
Nationals starter Josiah Gray walked six in his five innings of work, but the Tigers didn’t accept the charity. Spencer Torkelson’s two-out single in the third was the only run they got off him.
They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and came up empty. Gray got Jake Rogers on a fielder’s choice, Zack McKinstry on a pop up and Javier Baez on a flyout to center.
The Tigers left the bases loaded again in the sixth.
Nick Maton, who also walked and singled, started the inning with his fifth homer of the season. He blasted a 96-mph fastball off reliever Andres Machado into the bullpen in right field.
Baddoo walked and Matt Vierling singled, McKinstry ripped an RBI single to make it 6-3 and chased Machado.
Right-hander Kyle Finnegan, after walking Riley Greene to load the bases, got Torkelson to foul out to end the inning.
The Nationals gifted the Tigers a fourth run in the seventh. Finnegan drilled Andy Ibanez with a 96-mph sinker in the shoulder — the ninth free base for the Tigers. A throwing error by first baseman Dominic Smith sent Ibanez to third and he scored on a ground out by Baddoo.
That’s where it ended, though. The Tigers didn’t threaten against Carl Edwards, Jr., or Hunter Harvey.
“We tried to chip away but we didn’t chip away enough,” Hinch said.
The Tigers (20-24) head to Kansas City for three games, with a very taxed bullpen. In the middle of a stretch of 13 straight games, it’s conceivable the Tigers call up a fresh arm from Toledo. Hinch, obviously, couldn’t confirm any moves right after the game.
Twitter: @cmccosky