DETROIT — Alex Faedo was seemingly set up for an abbreviated start on Friday, in his return from the injured list and his first Major League outing since May 30. If he had gone eight batters, he would have been perfect.
Of course, that would have been a short start, even by the Tigers’ bullpen-game standards. Still, as trouble mounted with four consecutive baserunners in the fourth inning, Faedo got a chance to work through it and deal with some pressure in his return.
It didn’t end well. By the time George Springer’s two-run home run chased Faedo on his 72nd pitch, the Blue Jays had a six-run inning. By game’s end, infielder Zack Short entered to record the final three outs in a 12-2 Tigers loss at Comerica Park.
“Obviously when Springer hits the homer, you kick yourself. I mean, that’s Managing 101,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “As you can see, we ended up going to [José Cisnero] in a down game, down a lot. We were pretty thin down there, so we needed to stretch him as much as we could. Results-wise, no, it didn’t feel very good.”
Faedo retired Toronto’s first eight batters, then he retired just three of his final 11. The dichotomy between those two stretches could hint toward his role in the long term.
Even before Friday, Faedo’s splits suggested more success in shorter doses. In his five outings before the cracked fingernail that caused him blisters and landed him on the injured list, opponents hit just .163 with a .457 OPS in his first time through a lineup, compared with .273 and .948 the second time through. Likewise, opponents’ batting average off Faedo rose from .129 in his first 25 pitches to .321 over his next 25. His splits over 12 appearances last year were similar.
Faedo attacked the strike zone early with his fastball and slider, a plan that worked well to help him get ahead of hitters — including Bo Bichette on a first-inning strikeout chasing a slider in the dirt. The Blue Jays became more aggressive in the third inning, turning a two-out single from Kevin Kiermaier into a run on a Springer double down the opposite-field line.
Once Faedo walked Brandon Belt and Matt Chapman in the fourth inning, with a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. single in between, the right-handed starter was in trouble.
“It’s not an easy lineup to navigate,” Hinch said. “It’s funny, a leadoff walk starts the big inning and then he made a couple mistakes. He had a hard time getting the ball arm-side, inside to them against their righties. So they were out over the plate quite a bit and they made him pay. He can do a lot of things with his fastball-slider combo, but the arm-side command is probably critical for him to be able to pitch the whole plate.”
Faedo also struggled with his changeup, a critical third pitch for him when in a starting role. He threw nine of them, getting one swing and miss and no called strikes off of it. Kiermaier’s third-inning single came off the change.
“He kept them guessing, kept them off, then started throwing his offspeed for balls and fell behind in counts,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “I think the numbers kind of skewed a little bit. He attacked the zone and that’s what we asked of him, but tip your cap to that lineup. I think he fell behind a little bit the second time through and they took advantage of it. They had a couple walks, a big hit and that kind of led to a big inning. But I don’t think he did horrible.”
Faedo said he took “a lot of pros, a lot of cons” from the outing, but that he had to limit damage in the fourth.
“Good hitters, they’d seen a couple of the same pitches in the same spots,” Faedo said. “Maybe they were looking for certain things and I fed into that. Just go from there.”
What the Tigers do from here could be important. Faedo started on Friday in part because Reese Olson is in a piggyback role this week as the club tries to watch his innings. If Olson goes back to the rotation out of the All-Star break, Detroit will have a full rotation with Tarik Skubal, Eduardo Rodriguez, Michael Lorenzen and Matt Manning.