Daniel Norris shines in Tigers debut against Orioles
BALTIMORE — Detroit Tigers rookie Daniel Norris will draw comparisons to David Price, the established ace the club traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Norris and two other prospects.
At 22 and still a rookie, Norris is not the same pitcher Price was during a one-year stint in Detroit. But in his Tigers debut at Baltimore Sunday, Norris was pretty close.
And while losing Price substantially reduces the Tigers' playoff chances this year, Norris gave Detroit a brief glimpse of what he could provide in the future.
"These are the type of guys you get back for David Price, OK?" Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "A lot of late life. You see hitters in hitter's counts who didn't center up, which tells you there's some late movement on the ball. Balls that appear strikes in the middle of the plate that end up somewhere else."
Norris baffled the Orioles over 7 1/3 innings on Sunday afternoon, allowing just four hits, one run and one walk and striking out five.
Perhaps more impressively, he needed just 84 pitches and lasting the longest of any Detroit starter in the four-game series at Baltimore.
"From the very get-go, we were going after guys," catcher James McCann said. "He did a heck of a job."
After striking out Jimmy Paredes to start the eighth inning, he gave up a single to Jonathan Schoop and then gave way to reliever Bruce Rondon, who ended the inning on a double play.
Three outs later, the bullpen preserved his first win for Detroit. The Tigers gave him all the support he needed with J.D. Martinez's three-run homer in the first.
"Three runs early in the game, no one's comfortable at that point," Ausmus said. "He just continued to do his job."
After that, Norris came out firing. He struck out Manny Machado with a 92 mph fastball up in the zone, then rung up Gerardo Parra with a 90 mph cutter on the outside corner.
"He's just got good finish on the fastball," Ausmus said. "To hitters, it looks like it's at your belt, and it's really above your bellybutton."
Norris started the season in the big leagues with Toronto, posting a 3.86 earned-run average in five starts. But he struggled to keep his pitch count down, and in his last start he needed 78 pitches to get through three innings. In his return to the majors, in a small ballpark against a hot-hitting Baltimore team that scored 22 runs in the first three games of the series, he rolled through the Orioles lineup.
After a 1-2-3 first inning, he continued to work quickly, catching the return throw from McCann and stepping back on the mound right away. He cruised through all 7 1/3 innings while his opposing counterpart, Ubaldo Jimenez, labored through 4 2/3 on 88 pitches.
A rare sign of trouble came in the second when he put runners at first and second on a walk and single with no outs. Baltimore's J.J. Hardy popped up a bunt toward the mound, and Norris dove off the mound to snag it for the first out. On the next pitch, he induced an inning-ending double play.
"I always complain I never get cool (pitcher's fielding practice) plays," Norris said with a smile. "Gosh, I wiped that clean. When he bunted, I was like, 'Oh, I'm laying out for this.'"
Norris' only mistake came in the fourth inning, when the Orioles' Chris Davis hit a solo home run for Baltimore's only run. It was around that time that Norris began to mix in his curveball. He retired the next 12 hitters after Davis' home run, saying later that he felt better as the game went on.
"That was key," Norris said of adding the curveball. "We needed to do that. That's my change of speeds. My change-up and slider are still kind of hard, usually."
As with any team debut, expectations for Norris have to be put in perspective.
But to end a 10-game road trip Ausmus called "tumultuous" — the Tigers lost six games, fell further back in the wild-card race and lost three key players in trades — Norris provided a reason for optimism.
"He followed the game plan, we got on the same page and that was the first time I've caught him," McCann said. "It was a special thing to see, no doubt."
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