DETROIT — Many rookie pitchers find themselves where Reese Olson was last weekend, searching for answers after what had worked early in the season goes awry. Few of them figure it out so quickly.
The 3,000 rpm slider that was close to unhittable for Olson for two months was hit enough by the Rays last Friday that Olson was left to wonder if hitters were sitting on it. He’d given up five homers in his previous four starts, and 13 runs over 16 innings in his past three outings. He debated whether to go to something else.
Olson did some of that on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park, but the Tigers warned him against overreacting. He didn’t need to abandon the slider; he just needed to throw better sliders.
“I made an adjustment to get that more down instead of off the plate,” Olson said after tossing six scoreless innings and allowing just two hits with eight strikeouts in a 3-0 win over the Twins. “When it’s down, that seems to be where I get most of my chase for swing and miss instead of off the plate. When I miss and it’s going off, it’s kind of a hanger back up in the zone.”
Olson actually threw a higher percentage of sliders Thursday than he did in his previous start. He threw as many sliders as four-seam fastballs — 30 each in a 94-pitch outing. But he picked his spots for when to throw the pitch, who to throw it against and how to complement it.
“I thought his sequencing was great,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought his usage was great.”
The Twins had already seen the slider on June 24, when Olson struck out a career-high nine batters over 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Their familiarity didn’t help.
“He just spins the [heck] out of it,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The higher the spin, the harder it is to pick up. He was kind of throwing it in between his normal slider and his curveball today, and throwing it really hard. Wasn’t throwing it for strikes, but it sure looked like a strike for as long as it could. He was using his fastball effectively when he needed to. It was just extremely hard to pick up.
“I remember the same thing last time we faced him. It was just a really tough pitch. I don’t know what happens when he faces other teams, but I mean, he’s one [heck] of a pitcher when he faces us.”
Olson threw the slider for strikes early. He froze Jorge Polanco on one for a called third strike just off the plate in the opening inning. Former Tiger Willi Castro took back-to-back sliders for called strikes before Olson dropped a curveball into the zone for another strikeout to end the second inning. Joey Gallo took a first-pitch slider on the outside corner to begin the third, one of three consecutive offspeed pitches that set up a 95 mph fastball for another strikeout. Christian Vázquez chased a slider down for strike two, then another off the plate for a strikeout in the following at-bat.
Olson struck out five of his first nine hitters. That rate slowed his second time through the order, but he picked up two key strikeouts in potential sacrifice fly opportunities that allowed him to keep pace in a scoreless duel with Kenta Maeda.
Ryan Jeffers chased a pair of sliders down for a strikeout with runners at the corners and one out in the fourth before Olson overpowered Matt Wallner for a popout to end the threat. The Twins again put runners at the corners with one out in the next inning, but Olson flipped a curveball onto the outside corner to strike out Edouard Julien for the second out, then another curve that Polanco hit to first to end that inning.
“He won really big at-bats,” Hinch said. “Just big moments and big at-bats, he was creative.”
Olson drew eight swinging strikes and five called strikes off his slider. His fastball and sinker drew 11 strikes combined, and he drew three called strikes off just seven curveballs.
“I love his curveball,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “It’s a hard pitch when [hitters] are go, go, go — and then slider is a little slower. When you slow them down even more, it’s hard. I thought he used it perfectly today.”
Once Riley Greene crushed a hanging slider from Maeda 453 feet to right-center for a solo homer in the sixth, Olson was in line for his first win since beating the Twins in June. And the Tigers were positioned for a series victory, winning three straight after a lopsided loss in the opener.