Ausmus Explains Why He Burned Through Bullpen In Blowout Win
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Brad Ausmus didn't want to, but his pitchers gave him no choice.
In the Tigers 19-9 win over the Mariners on Tuesday night, the skipper turned to five different relievers after starter Jordan Zimmermann left with an 11-run lead after the sixth inning. The bullpen would surrender five hits, three runs and a whopping seven walks in the final three innings of the game.
"It can't happen," Ausmus said. "You can give up runs, but you can't walk guys and you can't get behind hitters. We walked way too many. Whatever it was, there's no excuse for it. The truth is we gotta throw strikes. I don't care if it's a one-run game or a 15-run game, we gotta throw strikes."
The command issues began with Shane Greene and continued with Kyle Ryan, Joe Jimenez and Blaine Hardy. Only Alex Wilson, who threw just two pitches to get the final out in the top of the seventh, was above reproach. Of the 85 pitches thrown by the former four relievers, just 40 were strikes.
It put a damper on the Tigers third straight win and caused the game to push four hours in length.
"You have games like that, but it is frustrating. It's 11:00 and we're just finishing up the game. I'd rather we were getting out of here at 10:00 when you have a lead like that. It just boils down to throwing strikes," Ausmus said, his voice rising in frustration. "It's as simple as that."
Instead of patching things together at the end of the game, Ausmus could have gone straight to long reliever Anibal Sanchez in the seventh inning. Sanchez had pitched just three times in the past 10 days entering Tuesday night's game.
"We could've used him, but we felt like Greeney hadn't pitched much lately, hopefully we'd get him through an inning. Kyle Ryan hadn't pitched much lately, hopefully we'd get him through an inning, and then Joe, get him some more experience up here. It's a pretty simple formula, pretty simple recipe," said Ausmus.
Greene, making his second appearance in the past week, threw 20 pitches in the seventh, surrendering two hits and two walks. Ryan, also pitching for the second time in the past week, threw 29 pitches in the eighth, surrendering one hit and two talks. Whether or not either reliever will be available for Wednesday night's game remains to be seen.
Jimenez, meanwhile, threw 22 pitches in the ninth before he was lifted with one out to go.
"It was more about pitch count so we could use Jimenez (Wednesday)," Ausmus said. "But, yeah, you want to get through the game with as few pitchers as possible so everyone's available tomorrow. It comes down to throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters, especially when you have a double-digit lead."