Joakim Soria (left) is thriving in the closer's role. Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
DETROIT — The Tigers’ bullpen, forecast to be a Detroit weakness when the season began, has turned into a strength.
Many factors play into that but one of the largest, aside from individual performances, has been the way second-year manager Brad Ausmus has matched the strengths of his relievers to weaknesses and matching up to the opposition.
The Tigers entered play Wednesday night with a bullpen ERA of 2.82 and a 7-3 record. Relievers have pitched 111 2/3 innings, about 30 percent of the team total.
It starts at the top, or at the bottom, as it were. Closer Joakim Soria has a 1.00 ERA with 13 saves as the replacement for right-hander Joe Nathan, who pitched one game and then suffered an elbow injury that could end his career.
Soria, who would have been the setup man had Nathan not required surgery, has exceeded what the injured closer would have been expected to do.
Ausmus has gone the matchup route preceding Soria, primarily using right-handers Joba Chamberlain (1.59 ERA) and Angel Nesbitt (3.24) with lefty Tom Gorzelanny (3.38).
The rookie Nesbitt isn’t one of those 100 mph throwers. Instead he spots his mid-90s fastball and mixes in a breaking ball and occasional changeup. He looks very poised and Ausmus has gradually moved his usage to later in games as he has shown he can handle late-game situations.
Right-hander Alex Wilson (1.69) has been excellent in long relief. He throws in the low 90s but moves the ball around and has solid off-speed stuff. Al Alburquerque (4.91) had early problems but seems to have stabilized of late.
Alburquerque’s fastball is down from the upper 90s it was when he broke in with Detroit but pitching coach Jeff Jones has helped clean up some mechanical issues and Alburquerque is beginning to show the killer slider he seemed to have lost at times last season.
Lefty Blaine Hardy (3.45) has been useful as a multi-inning pitcher but Ausmus also has brought him in to face a string of lefties late in games. He had problems with his curve late last season and early this spring but seems to have gotten it back.
The creativity Ausmus has shown looks like the biggest factor in Detroit’s bullpen success.
The preference would be for a bullpen such as Kansas City’s, where the manager trots in one 100-mph thrower after another from the sixth or seventh inning on. That’s everybody’s preference.
Instead, Ausmus looks at who’s coming up in the order, whether they hit left or right, who’s likely to pinch-hit, whether fastballs or off-speed would be best, what the score is, the inning, road or home, who’s rested, past history between reliever and batter, and then he goes to his bullpen.
And good news for him, hard-throwing right-hander Bruce Rondon is going out on a rehab assignment Thursday with a return next week likely.
