Atlanta — Mark Canha played in the National League East the last two seasons, so he has a special appreciation for the way Reese Olson attacked the talent-laden Atlanta Braves' lineup Monday.
"It's always a grind against these guys, especially in this ballpark," he said after the Braves rallied late, after Olson was gone, and beat the Tigers 2-1 at Truist Field. "Every day feels like a fight."
But for the first six innings, Olson, the Gainesville, Ga., native making his first ever start in Atlanta, took the fight to the Braves. He blanked them on four hits with eight strikeouts.
"That's an impressive outing against that lineup," Canha said. "Gutsy. We know what Reese can do. He's been doing it all year. But that felt like Reese kind of made a statement tonight. We just couldn't help him out. That's a good pitching staff on the other side there and a good defense.
"We couldn't push one or two more across."
It must've felt like déjà vu to Olson. Earlier in the year, he made six starts where he allowed two runs or less and the Tigers lost all of them. Same story.
The Braves tied the game in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out single by rookie Forrest Wall, who'd just been called up from Triple-A. He'd struck out in two previous at-bats against Olson, the first time swinging wildly at three sliders.
He rolled a two-strike slider from reliever Will Vest into right field to tie the game.
Then in the bottom of the eighth, right-hander Shelby Miller got the first two outs. He threw three straight four-seam fastballs to Ozzie Albies. Albies was late on the first, took the second for a ball and then poleaxed the third one, sending it 407 feet into the second deck in right field.
"Shelby threw three straight fastballs and the one thing Albies does a ton is hit fastballs," manager AJ Hinch said. "That hurt when he didn't miss. He missed the first two. He didn't miss the last one."
Catcher Jake Rogers noticed the Braves had started to sit on off-speed pitches around the sixth inning. And he was having good success calling the heater with both Vest and Miller.
"I'll take the blame for it," Rogers said. "On the first two heaters, (Albies) was late. I called the third one. Me and Miller were on the same page. But as soon as Miller started his wind up, Albies was starting early and I thought, 'Uh-oh. Here we go.'
"And sure enough, he put a good swing on it and hit it a long way."
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Former Tiger Joe Jimenez pitched a clean ninth for the Braves and earned his first save of the season.
"We were competitive," said Canha, who contributed a double, single and walk. "We were doing a lot of good things. It was a well-played game. It just didn't go our way at the end."
It was a complete return to form for Olson after he'd been tagged for 17 earned runs, losing his previous three starts.
"I was able to command everything better," he said. "I got ahead in the count better. It's just like I'd been saying, it comes down to execution and executed everything better tonight."
He established both his four-seam and two-seam fastballs in the first inning and then proceeded to keep the Braves' hitters off balance with a well-sequenced blend of sliders, changeups and knuckle-curves. He threw a season-high 11 curveballs, getting three whiffs on five swings and three called strikes with it.
"I had a really good feel for it," he said. "It's a good pitch. When I can add that as a fifth pitch, a fifth quality pitch, it makes everything better."
He was varying the speeds on his slider, throwing as slowly as 82 mph and has hard as 87 mph. And he got seven whiffs on 17 changeups.
"Reese can go at lineups with so many combinations of pitches, he doesn't need to fall in love with any approach," Hinch said. "When he gets too repetitive with his stuff, he can get into trouble. Tonight it looked like he was in control of most of the at-bats."
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Olson had a large contingent of family and friends, at least 50, and he gave them a treat.
"It was good," he said. "I felt pretty normal. It's good to have a lot of people here watching me. I just tried to keep it as normal as possible...I was just happy to get back on track after struggling for a few. Looking forward to building on it."
The Tigers were having their own problems with Braves lefty Max Fried. He dominated them the first time through the order, collecting four strikeouts, three of them called third strikes.
But the Tigers started driving up his pitch count. With two outs in the fourth, Riley Greene and former Braves prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy walked around a base hit by Gio Urshela.
But Fried played on rookie Colt Keith’s aggressiveness, getting him to hit a first-pitch rollover grounder to second base.
"He's changed the way he pitches," Canha said. "He's added a cutter and it has some ride to it. It's tough to squard up. He's always tough and you know when he's going. You can kind of get him at the end if he gets tired. We sort of did. We just didn't punch him in the gut when we had him."
The Tigers did break through against Fried in the top of the sixth. After Andy Ibanez singled and Canha walked, Riley Greene ripped an RBI single to right.
But that was all the offense the Tigers could drum up.
The Tigers (34-38) are 1-4 on this road trip.
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