CHICAGO — Reese Olson, the Tigers’ No. 11 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, looked like an ace for five innings in his Major League debut, holding the White Sox hitless until back-to-back hits leading off the sixth inning ended his night.
Andrew Vaughn’s second-inning walk and Spencer Torkelson’s fifth-inning error on Yasmani Grandal’s ground ball accounted for all the traffic Olson allowed in his first five innings. His six strikeouts included two sliders that sent down Luis Robert Jr. swinging.
Olson’s five hitless innings matched his longest outing of any type at Triple-A Toledo, where he had a 9.67 ERA through his first seven starts before three dominant outings — including five innings of one-hit ball on May 20 — put him in line for the call to the big leagues once Eduardo Rodriguez’s injured finger put Detroit in need of another starter.
Romy Gonzalez, who broke up Michael Lorenzen’s perfect outing last Saturday at Comerica Park, ended Olson’s no-hit bid with a ground ball through the left side off a 2-2 slider to begin the sixth inning. Once Tim Anderson followed with a line-drive single into right-center field, manager A.J. Hinch went to the bullpen.
Both runners scored, leaving Olson in line for a potential tough-luck loss. Still, he became just the seventh pitcher in Tigers history to toss five or more innings with two hits or fewer allowed in his Major League debut, a list that includes Kid Speer against the White Sox on April 24, 1909, as well as Jeff Weaver in 1999 and Garrett Hill on July 4, 2022.
Olson, acquired by the Tigers two years ago from the Brewers in a Trade Deadline deal for Daniel Norris, flashed dominant stuff, from a fastball that averaged 95.8 mph to a late-dropping changeup to a high-spin slider that averaged 2946 rpm and topped out at 3093. The slider proved especially troublesome for an aggressive White Sox lineup that swung and missed at six sliders and six changeups while taking six more sliders for called strikes. The slider fanned Robert and froze Eloy Jiménez for back-to-back strikeouts in the fourth inning.