BALTIMORE — Detroit’s Dave Dombrowski just might be the majors’ best general manager. He just might be crafting a Hall-of-Fame résumé. He is renown for being particularly adept at loading high-end talent into his lineup and rotation.
But when it comes to the bullpen, he has had the opposite of the Midas touch. It’s as if, were he Tom Brady, he could make every pass except a square out. He just couldn’t complete that no matter how much he practiced and tried.
When it comes to finding capable relief, Dombrowski has attempted to go with development, trades, free agency and just throwing things against the wall, like trying this year to resurrect Jim Johnson and Joel Hanrahan (unsuccessfully, of course).
He has expended time, energy and finance. Yet, it remains his Achilles’ arm, the biggest reason a group built around Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer may never win a title despite getting achingly close so many times.
For the second straight day, the Orioles crushed the Tigers bullpen in the eighth inning — in Game 1 they blew it open, and in Friday’s Game 2 they rallied to a 7-6 triumph.
The last time a Buck Showalter team won a dramatic Game 2 to take a two-zip ALDS lead, he went on the road and never won again as Yankees manager. But in that 1995 series against the Mariners, Showalter had the incendiary pen — save for a rookie named Mariano Rivera, who Showalter did not fully trust at that point.
Now, it is Brad Ausmus trying to push his versions of David Cone — Scherzer and Verlander — deeper and deeper into games so he does not have to hand off to a bullpen more combustible than Lindsay Lohan. On looking forward to Game 3, the Tigers skipper said, “If we have a lead in the eighth inning on Sunday, we’ll have to find somebody.”
Yes, somebody. Anybody. Can you get Guillermo Hernandez on speed dial? Who cares he is nearly 60? There is nothing that makes a manager look worse than having no place to go to get outs late in a game. There is no clock. No way to stall and have time expire. You have to get all 27 outs to win. And the Tigers usually falter somewhere in the twenties.
Over the course of 162 games, the Tigers’ lineup and rotation overwhelm enough to cover for many relief sins. But with this Baltimore lineup able to, at minimum, inflate a starter’s pitch count, the pen will be exposed as a Motown horror show.
Actually, for a while Friday it looked as if the AL Central champs had a wild card.
Anibal Sanchez, who did not have enough regular season left to build back up to being a starter after returning in late September from a strained pectoral, made the third relief appearance of his career. Verlander, not the dynamic guy of his prime, lasted just five-plus innings. Sanchez relieved, used his full starter arsenal and authored two perfect frames. But Ausmus wanted to limit him to 30 pitches in the unfamiliar realm and returning from injury.
That meant the eighth inning belonged to Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria, the partnership that dynamited Detroit’s Game 1 chances. The Camden Yards crowd actually cheered the sight of Chamberlain, a good-luck charm for the opponent. He faced four batters, three reached, he turned 6-3 to 6-4, tying runs on and said afterward, “This one is on me. I’ll wear it.” In his case, it looked uglier than the ZZ Top beard he sports.
Soria entered and walked J.J. Hardy to load the bases. He said he knew pinch-hitter Delmon Young was a first-pitch fastball hitter, so he served a slider. Young clocked it into the left-field corner — three-run double. The Orioles had the lead their closer, Zach Britton, would not relinquish.
The Tigers pen? The portion not named Anibal Sanchez has gotten five outs in the first two games while giving up 11 runs (eight hits, three walks, no strikeouts).
Dombrowski said he did not want to talk much about why his recent pens have not performed. He did mention that youngsters who looked as if they were going to be special — Joel Zumaya and Bruce Rondon — broke down. Jose Valverde collapsed. Joe Nathan and Soria have just not been the same for the Tigers as the shutdown forces they were with the Rangers. Chamberlain went from a strong first half to mimicking the worst of his Yankees days.
Perhaps most damaging, Dombrowski thought he had Andrew Miller on July 31, had given Boston the package requested. But then Baltimore agreed to part with touted pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez for the left-handed reliever. Miller was arguably the MVP of Game 1 with two critical lockdown innings when the game was still in doubt. He might have been the MVP of Game 2, as well, because the Tigers did not have him.
What the Tigers have instead when they spell relief is: “D-O-O-M.”