Detroit Tigers waste Reese Olson's eight scoreless innings, lose to Marlins, 1-0, in 10 innings

Miami Marlins left-hander Ryan Weathers, a former top prospect and the son of 19-year MLB pitcher David Weathers, took a perfect game into the sixth inning against the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers broke up the bid for a perfect game with a leadoff single from Wenceel Pérez in the sixth inning, only for Javier Báez to ground into a double play. Weathers, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 draft, faced the minimum 20 batters until Mark Canha's two-out single in the seventh inning.

"We miss-hit a lot of balls down on the ground," manager A.J. Hinch said. "It was a well-pitched game on both sides. It's a little bit of a throwback game where each starting pitcher was just dealing."

It was a classic pitching battle, as Tigers right-hander Reese Olson matched Weathers' eight scoreless innings by firing eight scoreless innings of his own.

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The Tigers lost the pitching duel, 1-0, to the Marlins — the worst team in baseball — in the 10th inning Tuesday night at Comerica Park, the second of three games in the series.

The Marlins scored in the top of the 10th inning on a ground-ball force out, whereas the Tigers (21-21) failed to score in the bottom of the 10th.

Olson, who has received just eight runs of support from the offense across 47⅓ innings in eight starts, pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his MLB career, spanning 26 starts in two seasons.

"I'm just focused on throwing strikes and being competitive in the zone," Olson said, when asked about the lack of run support. "Our guys have been scoring runs, so I believe in them."

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Better late than never

The Tigers and Marlins took a scoreless tie into the ninth inning.

Right-handed reliever Jason Foley, who typically works as the closer, replaced Olson for the top of the ninth inning in a non-save situation. He retired all three batters he faced, including a strikeout of pinch-hitter Jake Burger to begin the ninth.

Marlins left-handed reliever Tanner Scott replaced Weathers for the bottom of the ninth. He allowed a one-out single to Matt Vierling and a one-out walk to Canha, putting the game in the hands of Riley Greene.

But Greene grounded out on a down-and-away slider below the strike zone to strand two runners, sending the game to extra innings.

In the top of the 10th inning, the Marlins took a 1-0 lead when Bryan De La Cruz — the free runner in extra innings — scored from third base when Jesús Sánchez grounded into a force out against right-handed reliever Alex Lange. (Before that, De La Cruz advanced to third base on Josh Bell's leadoff single into center field.)

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The Tigers didn't get the job done in the bottom of the 10th against left-handed reliever A.J. Puk, stranding Greene, the free runner, at third base.

Spencer Torkelson, whose hitting streak ended at eight games, popped out to the third-base side in foul territory. Gio Urshela, making his return from the injured list, flew out to right field, advancing Greene to third base.

Pérez flew out to end the game.

"You're not going to create opportunities all the time," Hinch said, "especially when somebody comes in and pitches as well as Weathers did, but these are winnable games because of the closeness of the score when you get pitching like this. It does hurt not to capitalize."

Before Torkelson's pop out, he hit a bloop foul ball that landed inches from fair territory in right field. Had the ball been fair, Greene would have scored easily from second base. The Tigers could have challenged, but they knew the ball landed in foul territory.

"The word we got back was it was foul," Hinch said.

As a result of the pitching duel, Weathers lowered his ERA from 4.54 to 3.81 in his ninth start; Olson dropped his from 2.52 to 2.09 in his eighth start.

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Reese puts the pieces together

Olson received the handshake from Hinch after finishing the eighth inning.

"He hasn't complained about anything, nor should he," Hinch said. "He's got one job. I'm proud of how he's pitching and the way that he's executing the game plan. He's putting up zeros. That's his part. Regardless of who's pitching or what the pitching outing is, we love run support."

The 24-year-old threw eight scoreless innings on three hits and six strikeouts, without a walk. He tossed 60 of 96 pitches for strikes, and he generated 13 whiffs on 45 swings. He dominated by locating pitches at the bottom of the strike zone.

The three hits against him: Bell's single in the first inning on a slider, Otto Lopez's single in the fifth inning on a sinker and Sánchez's single in the seventh inning on a slider. The hits from Bell and Sánchez occurred with two outs.

Olson recorded his 13 whiffs with six sliders, three fastballs, three changeups and one sinker.

"The slider was really good early," Olson said. "It seemed like they were maybe looking for that in the second and third innings, so I went to other stuff, and then I was able to go back to the slider later in the game."

Unable to weather the storm

Weathers, also 24, tossed eight scoreless innings on there hits and four strikeouts, without a walk. An array of ground balls helped Weathers shut down the Tigers.

"He sinks the ball, which is the definition of movement," Hinch said. "He's got a good arm. He's got a little bit of a quirky delivery and a ton of confidence to come challenge you. ... He's a young kid, and he's in attack mode, and when he gets quick outs, then he can last deep in the game."

He threw 65 of 97 pitches for strikes, and he generated just five whiffs on 52 swings with one fastball, one changeup and three sweepers. He threw 47% four-seam fastballs.

His fastball averaged 96.4 mph.

"The approach was fine," Hinch said. "We wanted to be aggressive against the fastball."

The three hits against him: Pérez's single in the fifth inning on a fastball, Canha's single in the seventh inning on a fastball and Pérez's single in the eighth inning on a fastball. After the hits from Pérez, Báez grounded out to end the innings.

Weathers' father, David, pitched more than 1,300 MLB innings from 1991-2009 — starting just 69 of 964 games — for the Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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Next up: Marlins

Matchup: Tigers (21-21) vs. Miami (12-32), series finale.

First pitch: 1:10 p.m. Wednesday; Comerica Park, Detroit.

TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Probable pitchers: Tigers — RHP Casey Mize (1-1, 3.58 ERA); Marlins — LHP Trevor Rogers (0-6, 6.57).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers waste Reese Olson's gem, lose to Marlins, 1-0, in 10