Fulmer threw 83 pitches in five innings against the Orioles, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk.
But what was Michael Fulmer throwing? This pitch was reading 83-86 mph on the radar gun. His slider last year was 88-90 mph. His curveball last year, the few he threw, was 78-79 mph. So what was this mid-80s pitch with a late horizontal break?
“A slider,” said Fulmer, who threw 83 pitches over five innings Monday in the Tigers’ 4-2 spring loss to the Orioles. “Everything feels great. You always have that dead-arm period, or times when your breaking ball won’t break.
“But every time I’ve thrown, I’ve been more and more excited about how good that pitch has been, how late the break is and all the swings and reads I’m getting from the hitters. It’s going in the right direction, for sure.”
The pitch, which likely will replace a curveball as his off-speed pitch of choice (his change-up is firmer, at 86-87 mph), was borne from his elbow inflammation earlier this spring .
“I was throwing my slider a different way trying to get more depth on it, and I was doing it the wrong way,” Fulmer said. “I was actually hyper-extending my elbow and that’s where the inflammation came in.”
So he stopped throwing it that way. Pitching coach Chris Bosio and bullpen coach Rick Anderson showed him a new way to throw it, using the same arm motion as his fastball, but with a little less velocity and a bigger break.
“If it was 84 to 86, that’s perfect for me,” he said. “The bigger break, it paid off today. It was the best I’ve seen it all last year, too. I was really happy with my slider and change-up today.”
BOX SCORE: Orioles 4, Tigers 2
This was Fulmer’s penultimate spring training start, and it was by far his most labor-intensive: 83 pitches, 54 strikes, in five innings.
“I’d like to throw 100 (in his next start), just to get ready for the season,” he said. “Last year and the year before, I think the highest I got in spring training was 80-something pitches. Then in the first game of the regular season when I get to 85 I am getting pulled after five or six innings.
“Bosio said we’d get stretched out to 100-105. I’d like to go into the first start of the season and have no limits.”
His only clean inning was his last. He gave up two runs, six hits and a walk, but seemed to make his best pitches with runners in scoring position.
Case in point: He gave up a bloop single to former Tiger Alex Presley and a swinging-bunt single to Austin Hays. Those runners moved up on a throwing error by third baseman Jeimer Candelario.
Fulmer, undaunted, struck out Pedro Alvarez, paralyzing him with a 95-mph fastball, and then ended the inning by getting Anthony Santander to pop out.
The Orioles were 0-for-7 against Fulmer with runners in scoring position.
Four of the six hits were by two batters — Presley and Chance Sisco. Sisco tripled and doubled off Fulmer.
Of his 83 pitches, 54 were strikes and 13 were swings and misses. He struck out five.
The Tigers hitters, meanwhile, couldn’t sustain anything against right-hander Chris Tillman, who allowed a run and six hits in five innings.
Back in February, the Tigers worked Tillman out here at Marchant Stadium.
He signed back with the Orioles the next day.
Candelario had a single and an RBI double. Dixon Machado had a pair of doubles.
