The Detroit Tigers stacked their lineup with right-handed hitters to face Tyler Anderson, an extra challenge for the Pittsburgh Pirates lefty on a day when the cold weather already provided one.
Anderson had a gameplan of his own, mixing his four-seam fastball with a changeup that had the Tigers swinging and missing on his way to tying a season-high with seven strikeouts.
Anderson fanned the Tigers’ top three hitters twice each on the way to a 3-2 seven-inning victory Wednesday afternoon in the first game of a doubleheader on a 40-degree day at Comerica Park.
“He was good again, mixing and matching,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Tough day to grip the baseball, and he went out there and executed pitches and continued to pitch the whole game, and the fact that he was able to use everything effectively. … Really solid effort, first game of a doubleheader, being able to give us five, it was very impressive.”
After a two-day layoff — an off day Monday was followed by Tuesday’s game being snowed out — the Pirates (8-9) closed in on a .500 record by winning for the seventh time in 10 games.
Anderson (2-2) allowed two runs on three hits and two walks in five innings and earned the win, thanks to a three-run fourth inning. Of his 90 pitches, he threw 31 changeups and 30 four-seamers, registering 50 swings and 15 misses, getting two Tigers out on called strikes.
“No. 1, he’s deceptive. He’s got the double, triple pumps and hides the ball, and I think the execution of his gameplan has been good,” Shelton said, with a nod to pitching coach Oscar Marin. “I think that’s a credit to Tyler and Oscar in terms of coming up with a really good gameplan to attack an all-right-handed hitting lineup today. To go through that and go through it pretty effectively was really important.”
Anderson rebounded from a rough start, as the Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Victor Reyes led off with a double, stole third and scored on Robbie Grossman’s sacrifice fly to center field.
Tigers starter Michael Fulmer (1-1) didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings, but the Pirates got four in a three-run fourth. They tied the score on Bryan Reynolds’ line-drive single to right field and took the lead on Colin Moran’s groundout to third, which scored Phillip Evans from third. Erik Gonzalez added an RBI single to left to drive in Reynolds for a 3-1 lead.
“I just feel like today the balls were – I’m sure Fulmer would say the same thing – they just felt like they were pretty slick and cold,” Anderson said. “So if you licked your fingers or got some rosin, it was just hard to get a really good grip. So sometimes that makes it harder to execute pitches.”
Anderson found a way, even after the Tigers answered with another double, this one by Wilson Ramos, who scored on Jonathan Schoop’s single to right-center that cut it to 3-2 in the fourth. With the tying run on first, Anderson got Reyes to line out to center to end the inning.
The Pirates had a chance to extend their lead, with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh after Frazier and Evans singled and Reynolds drew a walk off lefty Tarik Skubal, but second baseman Willi Castro made what Shelton called “an unbelievable play” to get Colin Moran out to end the inning and save two runs from scoring. Richard Rodriguez retired the Tigers’ side in order in the seventh to earn his second save.
“I think we found a couple holes,” Shelton said. “We did a nice job. We gave up a run, we came right back and combated it with three and continued to have good at-bats throughout the game. … I thought our at-bats got better as the game went on.”
