CLEVELAND – The door to leverage opened once more for Alex Lange, and the Tigers’ hard-throwing, breaking-ball-flipping right-hander answered with a changeup, literally and figuratively.
It could well end up being the most encouraging development out of Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field.
“He’s certainly regained every bit of the opportunities in the big moments,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who had spent the last few outings finding lower-leverage situations for him to work out the command issues that had plagued him in the ninth inning over the previous several weeks.
That doesn’t mean he’ll be back closing games; Jason Foley retired the top of the Guardians lineup in order Saturday to secure the save. But the development at least restores late-inning options by getting arguably the most electric stuff in the Tigers bullpen back in play for critical matchups.
Lange hasn’t recorded a save since July 23, but he had preserved a lead in Minnesota on Wednesday. Before that outing, he began warming in the bullpen with the Tigers trailing before a four-run Detroit seventh put him in position for a hold in the bottom of the inning. Saturday was different.
What had been a 3-0 lead following Kerry Carpenter’s first-inning homer was down to 4-3 in the seventh with the tying run on second and the go-ahead run at first with one out after Steven Kwan’s RBI single. Lange was summoned to face José Ramírez, who was 2-for-11 for the series to that point but a Tigers nemesis for years. He was 1-for-7 off Lange, but that hit was a go-ahead two-run double on Aug. 17, 2022.
“We don’t really like anybody against José Ramírez,” Hinch said. “If you’re going to go after him, the best stuff you have is the best stuff you can give to him.”
Lange fell behind with a first-pitch breaking ball off the plate away, but came back with a 96.3 mph fastball on the outer half of the plate for a called strike. A 1-1 changeup was close enough for Ramírez to foul it off. After Lange threw back-to-back fastballs off the plate (the latter close enough for Ramírez to foul off), Lange came back with a breaking ball that dove off the plate. Ramírez put it into play, but for a lineout to left.
“The breaking ball, the changeup, I thought he did a really good job of disguising his breaking ball and not overexposing it,” Hinch said. “It’s not usually how he’s pitched. He’s usually relying on his best pitch. He waited until he got to two strikes and dropped in the breaking ball and got him out.”
Lange entered the night having thrown curveballs for 58.4 percent of his pitches, according to Statcast.
“He was getting kind of curveball-heavy,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “Kind of wanted to keep the hitter off-balance, sneak a heater by him. And his changeup’s really good; we wanted to throw it more, so we were just kind of game-planning. It’s kind of him and us saying, ‘Hey, look, I think we can use all your pitches.’ It’s worked for him the last couple times.”
Lange threw just about everything in the dirt against Kole Calhoun, who had beaten him for a home run last September, for a two-out walk that loaded the bases for Oscar Gonzalez. Not only did Lange have nowhere to put Gonzalez, he had no room for a wild pitch that could allow Myles Straw to score from third and tie the game.
Undaunted, Lange went back to the breaking ball on Gonzalez, whose 33.6 percent whiff rate on breaking balls this season includes a 41-percent clip this month. The first landed in the middle of the zone just above the knees for a called strike, but the second bounced in the dirt. Rogers, seemingly anticipating it, pounced on it like an infielder swallowing a grounder.
“I tried to block it and then I turned my glove over and closed my eyes and picked it,” Rogers joked. “Goalie save.”
With the count even, Lange flipped another breaking ball onto the inside corner, which Gonzalez fouled off to the Guardians’ third-base dugout. Lange went right back to the outside part of the plate, similar to two pitches earlier, but Gonzalez chased it. He connected, but the resulting ground ball to third left Lange pumping his fist once Zach McKinstry threw to first for the out.
“We can talk closer all you want,” Hinch said. “I think that was a critical out that counts just as much as the 27th out.”