Randy Wolf Has Solid Start But No Run Support Against Rangers
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
Birthday balloon still stuffed in his locker, Randy Wolf admitted he was nervous before his first start in more than a year on Saturday.
The anxiousness showed early, when he allowed a four-run burst from the Rangers in the third inning.
Wolf settled down after he got rocked, and the Tigers managed to throw in a three-run homer from Ian Kinsler to make it a more respectable loss of 5-3. The journeyman left-hander finished with seven innings pitched, allowing nine hits and four runs (three earned), with five strikeouts and no walks.
Putting aside the third-inning flurry from the Rangers, it was a solid start for 39-year-old Wolf. But the fact that the Tigers even needed him to begin with highlights the patchwork nature of their pitching rotation. Wolf said his goal is only to add stability to that pitching staff.
"The last thing I wanted to do was go four or five innings and make the bullpen pitch the rest of the game," said Wolf, who turned 39 on Saturday and started his first game as a Tiger. "At that point, I just wanted to go as deep as I could in the game and try to limit the damage from there."
At this point, the Tigers have a similar goal: They're just trying to limit the damage of a mediocre offense. Their run support – in this series at least, after scoring in double figures in both games against the Cubs – has been in shambles.
Detroit went 18 straight innings from Thursday to Saturday without scoring a run. And in those three games, men were left on base 21 times.
"Just kind of one of those nights," said catcher James McCann. "Unfortunately what we put together in the ninth wasn't enough."
On Twitter, fans joke that #TTBDNS (Tigers threaten but do not score). That tongue-in-cheek remark has been all too close to reality during this series.
"I don't know that you really can ever explain it," said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus. "We just haven't hit as well as we did in Chicago. Certainly the Wrigley Field conditions played into that a little bit – the stadium itself being a small ballpark. But yeah, we didn't do much offensively against (Yovani) Gallardo (Rangers' starting pitcher)."
Stating the obvious, he added, "Bats have been a little quiet the last couple of days."
The Tigers (59-63) will try to even up the series against the Rangers on Sunday, in the teams' fourth and final matchup of the weekend.