BALTIMORE -- As Detroit baseball fans sit by and watch another season come perilously close to the end, most of their anger is focused on the sins and shortcomings of the Tigers' bullpen. The 162-game regular season taxed the fan base's patience and faith as closer Joe Nathan bore little or no resemblance to the 300-save stabilizer and six-time All-Star the Tigers were expecting, and manager Brad Ausmus spent much of the summer tinkering with combinations in front of him.
Everyone from Ausmus to the front office to the folks in the box seats hoped that things might magically coalesce in October. But two games into the postseason, Detroit's bullpen has allowed 11 runs, and the relievers not named Anibal Sanchez have combined for a 54.21 aggregate ERA. The Tigers' pen is a no-faith zone. And if this team gets bounced early or Ausmus suddenly develops a smoking habit, the relievers will be a big reason.
After Baltimore blitzed the Detroit pen for eight eighth-inning runs in a 12-3 win in the series opener, the Tigers' relievers were looking to redeem themselves and flip the script Friday. But it was more of the same, sad stuff. Joba Chamberlain created a mess for Joakim Soria, who allowed a bases-clearing double to pinch hitter Delmon Young, and the Orioles stole a 7-6 victory before an inspired crowd of 48,058 at Camden Yards.
Just like that, the series heads to Detroit with the Orioles up 2-0 and looking to put the Tigers out of their late-inning misery and Ausmus trying to find order amid the chaos.
Who's the major culprit? The way things have gone for Detroit's bullpen this season, the only person safe from criticism is the guy who isn't pitching on a particular day.
"This one is on me, and I'll wear it,'' said Chamberlain, who hit Adam Jones with a pitch before allowing back-to-back singles to Nelson Cruz and Steve Pearce and handing the ball to Soria. "If I don't put us in that situation, we're having a different conversation right now. There's no getting around it.''
That's a noble sentiment, but a questionable one given that Chamberlain logged a 4.97 ERA after the All-Star break and might not be the guy best suited to pitch high-leverage innings at this stage of the season.
So the question is, who? Al Alburquerque logged a 0.96 ERA and held opponents to a .161 batting average in August and September. But Ausmus, like predecessor Jim Leyland, doesn't appear comfortable calling on Alburquerque with runners on base or the game on the line in the eighth or ninth innings.
Ausmus could have used Soria to begin the eighth inning rather than asking him to bail out Chamberlain, but given Soria's travails over the past two days, he doesn't appear to be in a very good place at the moment. Soria missed a month with a strained left oblique and never got a chance to emerge as "the man" in the Detroit bullpen after arriving from Texas by trade in late July.
"You have to be ready for any situation," Soria said when asked about entering the game with two men on base. "That's not an excuse. They brought me here to get outs, and right now, it seems like it's not happening. One day you make a quality pitch and they hit it, and one day you make a mistake and it's a fly ball. It's baseball. You have to go out there and keep trying and keep fighting."
Sanchez, a potential postseason godsend for Detroit, dropped out of the sky and threw two shutout innings in relief of Justin Verlander on Friday. But he just returned from a six-week stay on the disabled list with a right pectoral strain, and Ausmus said it's a reach for the Tigers to think they can use him for more than 30 pitches at a time. As it turns out, Sanchez threw exactly 30 pitches in Game 2.
The bullpen has been frequently characterized as Detroit's Achilles' heel, but it's more like a lingering case of plantar fasciitis. Joaquin Benoit provided the low point last October when he allowed a crucial grand slam to David Ortiz in the American League Championship Series. Now, things are so bad Tigers fans are starting to yearn for the good old days of Jose "Papa Grande" Valverde.
General manager Dave Dombrowski hasn't been hesitant to spend money or seek creative solutions to the problem. The Tigers gave Nathan $20 million over two years only to get a pitcher who suddenly looks like he's 40 years old. Bruce Rondon, the supposed heir to the closer role for the past couple of years, can't stay healthy. Former All-Star Joel Hanrahan signed a minor league deal in May but never made it back from Tommy John surgery. And whether the issue is misuse, health, lack of confidence or some unknown reason, Soria certainly isn't the answer right now.
Detroit's bullpen instability is even more galling in light of Baltimore's abundance of riches. When Wei-Yin Chen labored in Game 2, Showalter summoned rookie Kevin Gausman to carry the Orioles through the middle innings. The former Louisiana State Tiger and first-round draft pick contributed 3⅔ innings' worth of heavy lifting and seemed oblivious to the notion that he was pitching in the biggest game of his life.
"Kevin has high expectations,'' Showalter said. "I mean, this is a Friday night pitcher in the [Southeastern Conference]. Have you ever been to a Friday night game in the SEC in Baton Rouge?"
Even if Detroit's bullpen was in working order, the Tigers have numerous other concerns to address. Max Scherzer and Verlander have been serviceable but hardly dominant in the first two games. Miguel Cabrera is hitting .571 (4-for-7) in this series, but he's immobile on the bases and failed to score from first on a long double by Victor Martinez to help kill a big inning for Detroit in the eighth. Center fielder Rajai Davis is limited by a groin injury, and Detroit's defense has looked very shaky in some big spots.
And the Tigers' bench might be as bad as the bullpen. In the ninth inning, when Detroit needed a run to tie it, Ausmus sent Hernan Perez, Andrew Romine and Eugenio Suarez to the plate against Baltimore closer Zach Britton. They went down meekly in order to end the game.
David Price will start against Miguel Gonzalez or Bud Norris in Game 3 on Sunday, so that provides a glimmer of hope for the Tigers. But right now, they can use a day off to clear their heads.
"This is frustrating," Verlander said. "It isn't easy. I don't think anybody is walking out this clubhouse feeling great. But we've got to focus on positives. We're going home, and if we win two games the pressure is squarely back on these guys. Obviously, it's not easy."
Obviously. The Tigers would love to reassert themselves by grabbing an early lead in Game 3, and they're confident they have enough offense to hang with the Orioles. But if the game is in the sixth or seventh and it's remotely close, the anxiety in Detroit's dugout will palpable. The Orioles will have the Tigers right where they want them.