Lange's dangerous curves provide sweet relief

DETROIT -- For Alex Lange, Saturday’s task was to face Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout with a one-run lead in the seventh inning. For Lange's mindset, it had to be the same situation he has faced for most of the season.

“Two more hitters I’ve got to get out,” Lange said of the Tigers' 4-3 win over the Angels on Saturday at Comerica Park. “That’s my job: to go out there and get the outs that are in front of me. That’s the way I look at it.”

That’s one reason Lange has progressed so well so quickly from a converted starter in the Nick Castellanos trade a few years ago to a hard-throwing youngster last year to one of the key relievers in the retinkered Tigers bullpen now.

The other reason, not surprisingly, is the curveball he used to strike out Ohtani and Trout in a perfect inning to carry the one-run lead to setup man Joe Jiménez and closer Gregory Soto.

“He’s got the equalizer with the breaking ball,” manager A.J. Hinch said of Lange’s curveball. “Changeup’s really good. He threw a really good one to Ohtani. And he’s got the heartbeat, combined with some intensity, to pitch in these leverage innings.”

One reason the Tigers were willing to at least listen to trade interest on many veteran relievers, including Soto and Jiménez, was the view that Lange could take on a bigger role if called upon. He has pitched in every inning from the fourth inning to the 10th, and while he doesn’t have a save this season, he was trusted with a save situation in extra innings on Aug. 1 before blowing a slim lead against the Twins.

He also has the ability to wash away a bad outing. The last time he pitched was the four-strikeout, six-run inning the Guardians put up against him and Andrew Chafin on Wednesday in Cleveland. Chafin took the hard-luck loss, but Lange surrendered four of the six two-out hits, including the José Ramírez bloop double that brought in the go-ahead run.

Three of those four hits, including the Ramírez double, came on curveballs at the bottom of the zone. The Guardians have baseball’s lowest swing-and-miss rate, and they won out against Lange’s curveball, which has one of the highest swing-and-miss rates in the game at 58 percent according to Statcast.

Lange showed no hesitation to go back to the curve on Saturday. If anything, he was eager for it.

After retiring Andrew Velazquez to begin the seventh inning, Lange didn’t throw a single fastball or sinker to Ohtani or Trout. He threw four consecutive changeups to Ohtani, getting to a 2-2 count, before flipping a curveball just below the strike zone for a swing and miss and a clutch strikeout.

“I know he’s aggressive early,” Lange said. “He’s looking for a heater that he can extend on, so we used the aggressiveness against him, pulled the string a couple times, and then we had a chance to put him away with the breaking ball."

It’s a risky game. While Ohtani punishes fastballs, he has just as many home runs on breaking pitches this season, 12 each, according to Statcast. He hits better off breaking balls (.294) than velocity (.256), though he has a 35 percent swing-and-miss rate off the breaking stuff.

That’s where the changeup helps.

“Changeup’s going to go away from a lefty,” Lange said. “Breaking ball’s going to go down toward his back foot. So it’s just kind of a change in directions.”

Lange kept it simple against the right-handed-hitting Trout, throwing him four consecutive curveballs. Trout, a .270 hitter off breaking balls with a 37 percent whiff rate, took the first one up and in, then chased the next three down and out of the zone for a strikeout to end the inning.

Job done.

“I never give him a break. I never give this guy an easier route,” Hinch said. “It’s always the middle of the order. It’s always the big names. When he throws strikes and gets ahead [in counts], he’s a very, very effective reliever. And I like how serious he takes his responsibility to come in and finish it up.”

Among Lange’s 64 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings this year are two each to Ramírez, José Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bobby Witt Jr., Andrew Benintendi and David Peralta. The one guy in that bunch with a hit off of Lange this year, of course, is Ramírez.

“As a reliever, you have to have a short memory in this game,” Lange said.