Detroit – Alex Faedo, out since June 3 with a finger injury, returned to the Tigers’ rotation Friday night.
It didn’t go well.
The hard-hitting Toronto Blue Jays tagged him for six runs in the fourth inning and rode that to a 12-2 romp in front of a heavily Blue Jays-flavored crowd of 30,029 at Comerica Park.
“Lots of pros and lots of cons,” Faedo said after the game. “I thought the first three innings went really great. The fourth inning went how it went. Looking back, there was some good and some bad but I have to be able to limit the damage in the fourth.”
It was curious that manager AJ Hinch stuck with Faedo as long as he did in that fourth inning, especially since he said before the game that his workload would be restricted in his first start back. Faedo made only one rehab start at Triple-A Toledo, throwing 57 pitches in 3.1 innings.
But he was sharp and efficient the first time through the Blue Jays’ order and the fourth-inning blowup was sudden.
Faedo retired the first eight hitters in 32 pitches, but things started to unravel soon after that. Kevin Kiermaier broke the seal with a two-out single in the third inning and scored on a double by George Springer.
The strike zone got a little fuzzy on Faedo and that led to his problems in the fourth. A pair of walks and a single by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., loaded the bases. Whit Merrifield singled in a run, Danny Jansen doubled in two, another scored on a Kiermaier ground out and Springer capped it with a two-run homer.
BOX SCORE: Blue Jays 12, Tigers 2
It happened that fast.
“When Springer hit the homer, you kick yourself,” Hinch said. “That’s managing 101. As you can see, we ended up going to (Jose) Cisnero in a down game, down a lot (in the ninth). We were pretty thin down there. We needed to stretch Alex as much as we could. Results-wise, no it didn’t feel very good when we bring Englert in there’s five innings I’ve got to get through.
“We were in a bad spot.”
Reliever Mason Englert didn’t start warming up until after the Merrifield single. Faedo, who ended up throwing 72 pitches, faced four more batters before Hinch pulled him.
“He got into the game great,” Hinch said of Faedo. “He came out pretty sharp. That’s not an easy lineup to navigate. Then the lead-off walk in the fourth started the big inning.”
Faedo threw mostly fastballs and sliders. He only mixed in nine changeups. The second time through the order, the Blue Jays’ hitters were locked in.
“He had a hard time getting the ball arm-side inside to the their right-handed hitters,” Hinch said. “They were out over the plate a lot and they made him pay. He can do a lot of things with his fastball-slider combo, but the arm-side command is critical for him.”
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During spring training, the initial plan was to use Faedo out of the bullpen as a bulk-innings reliever. There’s a chance he transitions back to that role after the All-Star break.
The Blue Jays welcomed All-Star starter Alek Manoah back into their rotation. Manoah, who finished second in the Cy Young voting last season, was shockingly sent back to the Blue Jays’ complex league team in April after a befuddlingly poor start.
“This time last year he was mic’d up (at the All-Star Game) talking to John Smoltz and walking him through his sequencing on the mound,” Hinch said before the game. “We can’t forget that just because he’s had a rough year and been to the minors.
“To have that reset doesn’t mean he isn’t a very talented pitcher.”
The Tigers ended up providing a relatively soft landing for Manoah’s return. They nicked him for a run in the third on singles by Andy Ibanez, Jake Rogers and Spencer Torkelson (RBI), but that was it.
“You have to keep the game close,” said Javier Báez, who flew out to left twice against Manoah. “When they score a lot of runs the pitcher gets confident and he’s not going to give in like he does when it’s zero-zero. We just didn’t come back.”
Manoah struck out eight, including all three outs in the sixth. He got seven swinging strikes with his 92-93 mph four-seam fastball and 11 called strikes with his slider and sinker.
“It’s hard to be satisfied (with the at-bats) when you get your (expletive) kicked,” Hinch said.
This was also Tigers outfielder Akil Baddoo’s return. Out with a quad strain since June 9, he went 0-for-4. He struck out twice against Manoah and then flew out to center field in his final two at-bats.
Center fielder Matt Vierling had three hits for the Tigers. His third hit was a bullet single to center field in the eighth inning that scored Zach McKinstry from first base. McKinstry was running on the 3-2 pitch.
The Blue Jays blew the lid off this game with a five-run ninth against Cisnero. He hadn’t pitched in four days and he’d only allowed one earned run in his last 12.2 innings. But he didn’t get an out. He walked two, threw a run-scoring wild pitch and gave up a three-run home run to Whit Merrifield.
The homer came one pitch after Torkelson and Ibanez got tangled up chasing a foul ball.
“Alex Lange has been down for five days, Jason Foley for four days, Cis was down four days,” Hinch said. “It could’ve been a little too much time off, which is something I would never have thought when we were draining our bullpen the last 10 days. His lack of command hurt him.
“I feel for him. It’s not his normal spot to pitch in. But we had to get to the end of the game.”
As it turned out, it was infielder Zack Short that came in to pitch and got the three outs to mercifully end the inning.
“It sucks,” he said. “Nobody wants to be in that situation. But it is what it is. It’s unfortunate this (blowout loss) happens a bit more regularly than we’d like. But I would be surprised if we didn’t come back tomorrow and do what we’ve been doing after a bad loss and play well.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky