Reese Olson, a native of Gainesville, Georgia, had a homecoming on Monday when he started Game 1 of 3 against the Braves at Truist Park. His parents brought out over 300 people from his hometown to watch him pitch, and he didn't disappoint as he did his best to carry the Detroit Tigers.
He pitched six innings, the most of any of his starts this month, and only gave up four hits while allowing zero runs or walks and striking out eight batters. His effort was for naught, though; Will Vest and then Shelby Miller came in the relieve Olson in the in the seventh and eighth respectively and gave up one run apiece, but it was enough to allow the Braves to take the game while the Tigers' lone run came off a Riley Greene RBI single in the sixth.
It was a commendable start for Olson (and the best of both worlds for those 300+ friends and family members, who got to watch him dominate while also seeing their local team win), who desperately needed things to go right after two awful back-to-back starts against the Brewers and Nationals.
As much as Olson's outing was a high point in what ended up being an abysmal series for the Tigers, do the Tigers still have to worry about him?
Was Reese Olson's incredible start against the Braves enough to make up for two terrible outings for Tigers in June?
In Olson's June 7 and 12 starts against the Brewers and Nats, he gave up 22 hits and 13 runs (12 earned) over just 9 1/3 innings. During the first, the Tigers weathered a shutout against Milwaukee while Olson's eight runs allowed comprised most of the Brewers' 10 total runs on the day. Against Washington, Olson gave up five of the Nats' seven, even while the Tigers' bats actually managed to give Detroit the possibility of a come-from-behind win. (They still lost 7-5, despite a Riley Greene homer in the bottom of the ninth to give them some momentum).
Those two starts were by far Olson's worst. He was stellar throughout all of May, with a 0.64 ERA and only five runs (two earned) allowed over five starts. Pitchers have their peaks and valleys, but those two appearances were a deep chasm for Olson. It could've been that he's corrected something that just wasn't going right, but the Tigers desperately need him to be good as almost everything else about the Tigers seems to be falling apart.