MIAMI — Reese Olson got punched in the mouth in the early innings.
His slider wasn’t spinning with its typical efficiency through the first three innings, and as a result, the Miami Marlins racked up four runs. Changing the pitch mix by decreasing the usage of his slider helped Olson bounce back and complete six innings, retiring the final seven batters.
“It wasn’t very good,” Olson said of his revered slider. “That’s not something you can lean on when I’m missing that big with it. It was one of those days where I lost a little bit of feel, but I’m not worried about it.”
A mid-game adjustment from Olson kept the Detroit Tigers within striking distance.
But the Tigers couldn’t complete the comeback attempt in Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Marlins in the first of three games in the series at loanDepot Park. The loss marks the fourth straight for the Tigers (46-58) following a three-game sweep by the Los Angeles Angels earlier in the week.
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Miguel Cabrera, who began his career with five seasons for the Marlins, finished 0-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch in his first game in Miami since April 2016.
“We didn’t get into the game great,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We didn’t finish it great. Late in the game, we played well to get ourselves back into it with a couple of really big at-bats, but they continued to play, too.”
Trailing 4-0 after three innings, the Tigers eventually trimmed their deficit to 4-2 entering the eighth inning.
An RBI single from Spencer Torkelson, facing right-handed reliever Huascar Brazoban, drove in the second run with two strikes and two outs in the seventh inning. Still, the Tigers stranded Torkelson and Riley Greene on the bases when Andy Ibáñez flew out to center field.
The Tigers tied the score at 4-4 in the eighth inning with a two-strike, two-out, two-run double by Nick Maton. Maton, who entered as a pinch-hitter back in the seventh, ripped a sinker from righty reliever JT Chargois to right-center field.
Javier Báez (single) and Zach McKinstry (walk) scored on the extra-base hit.
“We believe in him as a hitter,” Torkelson said of Maton.
The comeback attempt fell apart in the bottom of the eighth inning with right-handed reliever Jason Foley on the mound. He gave up three singles in a row to Jesús Sánchez, Yuli Gurriel and Jon Berti.
The single from Berti — a native of Troy and alumnus of Troy High School — put the Marlins ahead, 5-4. The Marlins tacked on another run, making it 6-4, with Joey Wendle’s sacrifice fly.
“It starts with falling behind (in counts),” Hinch said. “This is an aggressive team, and you got to get into leverage. That was a tough inning. … The four innings that they got the leadoff runner on base, they created innings and scored.”
Left-handed reliever A.J. Puk, who entered Friday’s game with a 4.45 ERA, struck out Greene to start the bottom of the ninth inning, but the Tigers wouldn’t go away. Torkelson launched a double to left-center field and scored from second base on Ibáñez’s line-drive single to right field.
Down by one run, Eric Haase and Báez struck out swinging on sweepers to strand Ibáñez at first base.
The strikeouts ended the game.
“We feel like we’re never out of a game,” Torkelson said. “We just keep chipping away, having good at-bats and passing the baton. We feel like we can win every single game no matter what the score is.”
De La Crushed early
The Marlins rocked Olson at the beginning of his 11th MLB game.
After a leadoff single from Luis Arraez, Bryan De La Cruz blasted an inside 94.7 mph sinker for a two-run home run to left-center field. The Marlins took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and didn’t step off the gas pedal.
“Good lineup,” Olson said. “They swing early, and they swing a lot. In the first inning, that’s what they were doing. Arraez is one of the best hitters in the game. There’s not much you can get past the guy. You don’t want it to be a long at-bat, so get him out of there and whatever happens, happens.”
In the second inning, Berti ripped a slider that caught too much of the plate for a leadoff double. The next batter, Wendle, reached on a fielding error by Ibáñez at second base to put runners on the corners.
A weak hit from Jean Segura rolled down the third-base line. Somehow, the ball stayed on the chalk all the way to the base in fair territory for a single to drive in the Marlins’ third run, extending the lead to 3-0.
Back-to-back hits from Jorge Soler (single) and De La Cruz (double) to start the third inning pushed the Marlins’ advantage to 4-0.
“For him to settle in and get us through six (innings),” Hinch said, “especially with where the game was at the time in which he was pitching, was big for our bullpen.”
Olson responded in the second and third innings to escape further damage, and then he powered through his final three innings by adjusting his attack plan. The 23-year-old threw 29 sinkers (33%), 22 four-seam fastballs (25%), 19 sliders (22%), 15 changeups (17%) and three curveballs (3%).
He generated six whiffs with one sinker, one four-seamer, two sliders and two changeups.
“I got a lot of ground balls with it, and I thought it was good,” Olson said of his sinker. “I left a few up that ended up being foul balls that I didn’t execute very well, but other than the homer, they didn’t do much with it.”
The first run
The Tigers struggled against left-hander Braxton Garrett but took advantage of a mistake from the Marlins’ defense.
A two-out single from Báez kept the fourth inning alive and allowed the Tigers to capitalize on an ensuing fielding error by Segura near the hot corner. Cabrera drove the ball into the ground and toward Segura with a 96.5 mph exit velocity. The ball skipped off his glove and rolled into the outfield, and Báez scored all the way from first base.
Before the first run, the Tigers missed out on scoring chances in the second and third innings.
“It seemed like he had all of his pitches working,” Torkelson said. “We couldn’t eliminate one. He did a really good job of mixing it up and hitting his spots for the most part. He kept us off balance. Tip the cap to him.”
Jake Rogers stranded Báez (walk) and Cabrera (hit-by-pitch), however, grounding into an inning-ending double play in the second. In the third, Zack Short and Matt Vierling opened with back-to-back singles before Greene grounded into a double play and Torkelson struck out looking.
Garrett, who mixed six pitches, allowed one unearned run on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts across six innings, throwing 62 of 94 pitches for strikes. He generated nine whiffs and 24 called strikes.
The 25-year-old has a 4.08 ERA in 21 games (20 starts).
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.