If the Tigers are going to pop champagne, they will need help from someone who is not allowed to drink it.Detroit will start 20-year-old Rick Porcello in Tuesday night's one-game playoff at Minnesota for the AL Central title. But Porcello has already shown he is far from an ordinary 20.
"Oof," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said recently. "He's a nice pitcher. He's just got really good stuff. He's got a great sinker, slider. And you know what, quick arm action. A little deception to him. His ball moves all over the place."
Porcello is 14-9 with a 4.04 ERA in 30 starts, and this will be his third start out of four against Minnesota, against whom he is 1-2 with a 3.09 ERA this year.
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The Tigers drafted Porcello 27th overall in 2007 from Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J. Although he was considered among the top five prospects that year, he was asking for a large signing bonus to give up a scholarship to North Carolina.
Ignoring MLB's "slotting" recommendations, Detroit signed Porcello to a $7 million big-league contract. And less than two years later, he made the team's rotation out of spring training.
And his poise has held up all year.
He showed that in his last start, when he allowed the Twins one run in 6 1/3 innings but got no decision.
"You do what you always do," he said afterward. "You stay focused and you try to make every pitch."
Porcello has become the youngest to win 14 games since Dwight Gooden in 1984, and he has done it with almost all fastballs -- and most of those are two-seam sinkers.
His curve and changeup are still works in progress. But the sinker is so good he leads the AL in groundball percentage (69.4) and is fifth with 24 groundball double plays induced.
"It's diving all over the place," Gardenhire said. "It's really tough. His ball's diving -- hard."In that game last Tuesday against Minnesota, Porcello allowed seven hits. But six were singles, and two of those were infield hits off Porcello's body and another than second baseman Placido Polanco should have fielded.
"It didn't surprise me that he pitched well," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
"But there was a built-in story with him no matter which way it turned out.
"If he did well, then, 'How about this kid's poise, a big game, what he showed?' If he hadn't done well, they'd have said, 'Well, You think it's because he's so young and in a big situation?' No. I think he's mature 20-year-old with very good stuff and a good pitcher and a very good competitor."
