DETROIT -- Rick Porcello did everything he could Tuesday night.
It just wasn't enough.
Porcello pitched eight scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 11 batters, but all that did was keep the Tigers in a game where they couldn't find a way to score.
They never did, and as Porcello could only watch on helplessly from the dugout, Neil Walker hit an 11th-inning homer and former Tiger Jason Grilli blew away the heart of Detroit's offense to finish off a 1-0 victory.
"This was a tough ball game for both teams, and we just came up short," Porcello said. "I need to build off this and keep going forward."
Unlike Detroit's other starters, all of whom can post big strikeout numbers on any given night, Porcello usually makes his living by throwing a sinker and getting ground balls. Tuesday, though, he was getting as many swinging strikes as he might get in a normal month.
"I was throwing everything for strikes, and getting guys to chase good two-strike pitches out of the zone," he said. "I've never had this many strikeouts, so no, I don't remember any other game quite like this one. I'm usually getting ground balls -- that's the key to my success. Getting strikeouts on top of that is just a bonus."
The key was his total command of his secondary pitches -- his curveball, slider and changeup that go along with his regular fastball and his sinking fastball.
"When you have all your pitches and you can throw them for strikes -- that's what makes guys like Justin, Max and Anibal so successful," he said. "In this league, you have to be able to throw off-speed pitches for strikes and keep them down in the zone."
Alex Avila has caught Porcello enough that he wasn't entirely surprised by the high strikeout total.
"He's got swing-and-miss stuff -- he always has," Avila said. "It's always just been a matter of him getting ahead of guys and being able to locate those put-away pitches rather than leaving them in the middle of the plate.
"Tonight, right from the beginning of the game, I saw that he had good command of everything. His curveball was probably the best it's ever been, and that meant we could save his changeup for later in the game, when we needed a pitch they hadn't seen."
Ironically, on a night where the Tigers offense couldn't get a run, it was their worst hitter who had a good night. Avila, who came into the game hitting .171 and in the middle of a 2-for-29 slump, walked his first time up and lined a sharp single to center in his second plate appearance.
"This is the worst stretch in my entire life," Avila said. "We've been working our asses off trying to get me out of this. We're trying to simplify things, make my swing a little shorter and make more contact. I got some results today, and maybe this adjustment will help me continue to do that."
If it doesn't work, Avila might go from starting in the All-Star Game to playing in the minor leagues in less than two years. Jim Leyland has talked about the difficulty of trying to fix a player's swing in the majors, and only Avila's work with the rotation has kept him in Detroit through two months of struggles.
Leyland pinch-hit for Avila in the eighth inning, but also said that he will start Wednesday in Pittsburgh, so the two good plate appearances have bought him a little more time. He knows he has to take advantage of it.
"Before you make it to the big leagues, you've always been the best player -- middle school, high school and college -- so now you are learning about failure and struggle and trying to adjust while maintaining your approach," he said. "Whether this adjustment will get me hits, I don't know. I just want to put myself in the best possible situation and see how it goes."
At the end of a long night, Avila was able to put both a tough loss and his hitting struggles into perspective.
"You get opportunities and you make the best you can of them," he said. "It's hard to get too upset about it. You always want to win, and you always put your best effort out there, but so do they. May the best one win."
