Reese Olson shows no fear vs. top hitters in Detroit Tigers' 5-3 win over Houston Astros

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers defeated the Houston Astros, 5-3, on Monday at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.

The Tigers are 10-7-1 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

Right-hander Reese Olson has put hundreds of miles on his truck in spring training.

He has started four games, including his past three games on the road against the Boston Red Sox in Fort Myers (120 miles from Lakeland), Atlanta Braves in North Port (100 miles from Lakeland) and Astros in West Palm Beach (175 miles from Lakeland).

"A lot of miles, but it's fun," said Olson, who gets to face better lineups on the road. "That's definitely a benefit. I get to see a lot of guys, and if the Astros came to our place, they wouldn't be there."

Olson matched up against top hitters Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, Yainer Diaz and Jeremy Pena, among others. He allowed one run on two hits and one walk with three strikeouts across four innings, throwing 40 of 66 pitches for strikes.

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"Overall, I felt really good about it," Olson said. "I'd like to be more efficient with a few noncompetitive pitches that are out of the zone out of my hand. Glove side, I'm tugging the ball. If I can clean those up, with all the pitches I did have, it could be another inning once we get to the season. I'll clean that up and build off what I did."

Olson, one of three pitchers competing for two spots in the starting rotation, owns a 4.22 ERA with four walks and 10 strikeouts across 10⅔ innings this spring. He also faced the best hitters from the Red Sox and Braves.

"He was a little erratic with his fastball, but he settled in and finished great," manager A.J. Hinch said. "He has pitched almost exclusively on the road, except for the first game, and that does draw some tough lineups. It doesn't faze him at all."

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Starting off

Olson threw 18 pitches in the first inning, 19 pitches in the second, 18 pitches in the third and 11 pitches in the fourth. He worked ahead 0-2 in the count to Bregman in the first inning with a changeup and a fastball, only to throw four consecutive balls for a two-out walk.

He bounced back and stranded Bregman on the bases.

"When he lands his secondary pitches in the zone, he's really good," Hinch said.

Olson registered three swinging strikeouts: Jon Singleton (88 mph changeup) in the second, Bregman (80 mph curveball) in the third and Singleton (79 mph curveball) in the fourth.

In the third, Olson surrendered hits to Pena (double) and Altuve (RBI single) for the Astros' lone run against him. He struck out Bregman swinging on a curveball to strand Altuve, who stole second base without a throw.

Olson threw seven of 11 pitches for strikes in the fourth.

"I like the strike-throwing mentality," Hinch said. "It's about throwing strikes and being in the box. He can use a lot of different pitches, so creativity is his best route."

At the plate

The Tigers faced left-hander Framber Valdez, a two-time All-Star. He tossed four innings of one-run ball with four hits, zero walks and four strikeouts.

Colt Keith, the Tigers' second baseman of the future, singled up the middle against Valdez in a left-on-left matchup in the third inning. The Tigers scored their first run, tying the game, when Spencer Torkelson grounded out in the fourth, following a single from Justyn-Henry Malloy and a double from Riley Greene.

Malloy, who collected three hits and crossed home plate twice, scored on Torkelson's groundout.

"It's a good bounce back for him," Hinch said of Malloy, "given that he hasn't had a ton of success this camp, on the scoreboard, at least. He's taken incremental steps forward, but everybody wants to see results. It's good to see him smile."

Valdez struck out Torkelson and Jake Rogers in the second inning, Ryan Kreidler in the third inning and Kerry Carpenter in the fourth inning.

Torkelson finished 0-for-3 with one RBI and two strikeouts. He is hitting .143 with two walks and eight strikeouts through 24 plate appearances this spring.

The Tigers didn't score again until the eighth inning, posting four runs for a 5-2 lead. All four runs occurred against right-hander Misael Tamarez, who had a 5.08 ERA across 101 innings for Triple-A Sugar Land last season.

The inning began with back-to-back singles from Malloy and Justice Bigbie. Two batters were retired before Dillon Dingler's two-out walk to load the bases, then Eddys Leonard delivered a two-run single for the lead.

Trei Cruz tacked on another two-run single.

On the mound

After Olson, the Tigers pitched right-hander Drew Anderson, right-hander Trey Wingenter, left-hander Andrew Vasquez and right-hander Brenan Hanifee.

The Astros took a 2-1 lead with Altuve's RBI single off Anderson in the fifth inning.

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Andy Ibáñez, who moved from third base to first base midway through the game, picked a hard-hit grounder from Diaz and started a double play to end the sixth inning, after Wingenter had walked a batter.

"We got to get him a little bit of exposure over there," Hinch said of Ibáñez at first base. "We all assume Tork is going to play 160-plus games, but maybe not all at first. We're going to give him a blow every now and then as the designated hitter, so Andy or Mark (Canha) or a number of guys may be over there."

Vasquez struck out two batters in the seventh inning.

Hanifee allowed the Astros' third run in the eighth.

Three stars

1. Olson, 2. Malloy, 3. Leonard.

Next up

Tuesday (1:05 p.m.) vs. Minnesota Twins in Lakeland.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers top Houston Astros 5-3 as Reese Olson shows no fear