The Detroit Tigers promoted right-hander Alex Faedo — as the replacement for struggling Spencer Turnbull — because he was throwing strikes in Triple-A Toledo.
Not much has changed in the majors, as Faedo, the No. 18 overall pick in the 2017 draft, turned in the best start of his MLB career (which spans 16 starts across parts of two seasons) on Thursday night. He pitched six innings, struck out a career-high 10 Chicago White Sox and didn’t concede a walk.
His walk rate is 1.2% through four starts.
“I think hitting is hard,” Faedo said. “I think that’s why I’m a pitcher. I try my best to attack the zone. Sometimes, it’ll bite you, but more often than not, you’re trying to attack them and stay in leverage counts. Hopefully, I can stay with that.”
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The 27-year-old has a 4.15 ERA with one walk and 22 strikeouts (26.8% strikeout rate) across 21⅔ innings over four starts. His positive performances were marred by allowing five home runs in his first three outings combined.
The problem: He pitched inside the strike zone too often and left too many pitches over the heart of the plate.
“He’s been dominating the strike zone, which is good,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Thursday’s game. “We have to get him into leverage against this team. This team will be ready to hit and doesn’t walk a ton. Quality strikes is going to be really important for him, and him being able to tweak his repertoire to be creative against different-style lineups. He can’t pitch the same to every single team.”
But Faedo attacked differently against the White Sox. His in-zone rate dropped to a season-low 46.8%, following a season-high 58.3% in-zone rate when he surrendered three runs over five innings to the Washington Nationals on May 20.
On Thursday, Faedo allowed two runs on three hits and no walks. He threw 59 of 94 pitches for strikes, generated 18 whiffs and collected 12 called strikes.
“I thought my fastball had good carry on it,” Faedo said, “so I think when you can pitch off your heater, and you’re getting some swings and misses and takes on it, you’re able to use your pitches differently. I thought the breaking ball was a little better. I threw a couple right-on-right changeups. So I guess it was a little different.”
Faedo, who tweaked his arm slot in spring training under the direction of assistant pitching coach Robin Lund, recorded 11 of 18 whiffs with his slider and 10 of his 12 called strikes with his fastball.
“I think some of his swing-and-misses that were in the zone to out of the zone are really important to highlight,” Hinch said after Thursday’s game. “Those are aggressive pitches. He’s getting himself into counts where he can expand the zone, or expand the plate, and pitch to less hittable pitches and not just focus middle-middle.”
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In the fifth inning, Faedo faced his toughest challenge after a leadoff solo home run from Gavin Sheets. Sheets turned on a full-count fastball and pulled the ball 353 feet down the right-field line.
Faedo struck out the next three batters: Jake Burger (swinging strike, 93.2 mph fastball), Romy Gonzalez (called strike, 93.9 mph fastball) and Seby Zavala (called strike, 83.1 mph slider).
He then struck out two of three batters in the sixth inning — Tim Anderson (swinging strike, 86 mph changeup) and Luis Robert (foul tip, 83.9 mph slider) — to complete his fourth start of the season.
“That should give him a lot of confidence,” Hinch said.
For the first time, Faedo pitched better as the game went along.
Faedo became the third pitcher in franchise history with 10 strikeouts, no walks and three or fewer hits in an outing, following right-hander Denny McLain in 1965 and righty Aníbal Sánchez in 2014.
“He was incredible,” Hinch said. “From the get-go, he had pretty good velocity and a pretty good slider. He got into chase counts and executed some chase pitches to get his punch outs. He finished strong.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.