DETROIT — Debuts get you
thinking.
When Bruce Rondon jogged in from the
bullpen to pitch the eighth inning on Thursday afternoon, you wondered
if this was the start of something big, something
special.
The 22-year-old right-hander has been a
player of fascination for fans ever since Tigers general manager Dave
Dombrowski raved about him in the offseason. Rondon was given a chance
to win the closer’s job in spring training, but instead was sent to
Toledo to work on his command.
He was recently deemed
ready — not to be the closer, but to be in the majors. With resurrected
closer Jose Valverde and Al Alburquerque unavailable, he got the call
with a 3-2 lead.
Rondon didn’t make it a memorable
first game. He blew a save by giving up one run on three hits in one
inning to turn a potential victory into a no-decision for Justin
Verlander, who came out with a blister on his right
thumb.
The rookie jogged off the mound after giving
up a lead-off single in the ninth, thoughts of the outing racing through
his mind.
“I was still focusing on the game,” Rondon
said. “I was a little disappointed in myself; I wanted to hold the lead
for Justin.”
Rondon instantly gets to face the most
significant challenge a late-inning reliever gets: “Turning the page,”
as Tigers manager Jim Leyland refers to it.
Leyland
said Rondon took setbacks to heart during spring training, but is hoping
he can eventually learn to deal with failure in the manner of his
mentor, Valverde. Leyland was asked whether experience or personality
makeup plays more of a factor in a pitcher learning to approach the
day-after with confidence.
“That’s a great question,”
Leyland said, before pausing briefly to consider. “Some of it comes
with experience and some of it comes with the personality you have. I’m
not sure, but it’s probably a combination of those
things.”
Valverde said it was a lesson he learned
very quickly, and Rondon will find mastering that as important as having
that 100 mph heater he displayed on five pitches and the quality
sliders he threw.
Throwing first-pitch strikes also
will prove valuable. Rondon got behind in the count to four of the six
batters he faced, including going 2-0 on the first two — Billy Butler
and then Eric Hosmer.
“It was a dream come true,”
Rondon said of throwing his first pitch. “But I wanted to throw a
strike.”
Before speaking with reporters through a
translator, the talented Venezuelan sat quietly on his locker stool.
Pitcher Drew Smyly walked over and patted him on the back. And when
Rondon got up to dress, designated hitter Victor Martinez walked over
and bumped knuckles with him while offering
encouragement.
It didn’t help that the Tigers lost in
10 innings, 8-3, after Phil Coke got wild with four walks and Darin
Downs gave up a grand slam to Alex Gordon.
There are
more expectations on Rondon’s shoulders than any young Tigers reliever
has carried since Joel Zumaya broke in in
2006.
Zumaya’s arm simply couldn’t hold up from the
torque he used to throw. He was dazzling at times, often wowing fans
with pitches registering 100 mph and higher. But Zumaya threw his last pitch
at 25, finishing 13-12 with a 3.05 ERA, one strikeout per inning and
just five saves.
So, you never know how a career will
play out.
Rondon throws in a more compact manner
than Zumaya, and is likely to have his success or failure determined by
his abilities rather than his injuries.
He took the
first step Thursday.
