DETROIT -- Astros pitcher Jake Odorizzi wouldn’t come right out and say it, but the veteran right-hander would prefer it if manager Dusty Baker removed the training wheels and allowed him to begin working deeper into games.
Odorizzi’s disjointed start to the season, which included an early-March signing and a month-long stint on the injured list, caused the Astros to treat him with kid gloves. A third consecutive scoreless outing in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Tigers in 10 innings at Comerica Park has Odorizzi feeling confident in his stuff and ready to take on a bigger workload.
In his last three outings, Odorizzi has thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings, five of which came on Sunday, when he allowed two hits while throwing 77 pitches. He tossed five scoreless innings Monday in Baltimore (86 pitches) and four more in relief June 15 against Texas (55 pitches).
“I’m going to try to keep going out there and continue to do what I’ve been doing,” Odorizzi said. “I feel a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident with everything right now. It’s nothing for me to really worry about. The results have been trending in the right direction with the stuff, as well. It’s not just kind of an accident. I just want to keep on the path I am for the rest of the season and give our team the best chance to win when I go out there and pitch.”
After signing in early March, Odorizzi made three starts in April before going on the IL with a right pronator strain. He’s 2-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 0.77 WHIP in six outings (five starts) since coming off the IL. The relief appearance came when Lance McCullers Jr. came off the IL and both he and Odorizzi were scheduled to throw on the same day.
Odorizzi said after his June 9 outing in Boston that he would have to earn more innings. Baker said Sunday that he took Odorizzi out of the game after five frames because the Tigers were hitting some long fly balls, which happened to turn into outs at cavernous Comerica Park. Cristian Javier followed Odorizzi and walked four batters in 1 1/3 innings, allowing the tying run to score.
“They were hitting him pretty good,” Baker said of Odorizzi. “We had a fresh bullpen and a fresh Javier. That just went into where it was time to take him out.”
The Tigers hit six balls off Odorizzi that went at least 352 feet, including a 372-foot fly out to center by Jake Rogers in the fifth that was hit at 107.3 mph off the bat and a 105.9 mph fly out hit by Jonathan Schoop in the first that traveled 380 feet, per Statcast. Zack Short hit a 394-foot flyout in the third. Detroit flew out to center 10 times Sunday, including seven with Odorizzi on the mound.
“I pitched here many times, so I kind of know how to navigate this place pretty well,” Odorizzi said. “This place is so gigantic to center field [420 feet] -- you just try to get everybody to hit it to center field. Stuff-wise, [I felt] perfectly fine. I could [have pitched longer]; I didn’t. I don’t make those decisions so it’s not exactly my jurisdiction.”
Odorizzi, who dealt with a cut on a finger on his throwing hand beginning in the second inning, threw a season-high 58 fastballs, which accounted for 75 percent of his pitches Sunday. His previous high for fastball usage was 68.6 percent on Monday in Baltimore.
“I’m really confident in my fastball right now,” Odorizzi said. “It has a lot of good metrics to it. This being a fly-ball park, we were really focused on that today. It’s one of those things -- if it isn't broken, you keep going to it. It was by design. Balls are hit hard, but like I said, it’s 420 to center, so you just play your center fielder back and let him go run down everything. As long as they stay in the ballpark, it’s fine by me.”