Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire was absolutely right about Daniel Norris’ competitive spirit and why he felt so comfortable calling on his left-handed reliever to enter Friday’s game with almost no warmup in the fourth inning.
Starter Ivan Nova was struggling. He wound up giving up six runs in the fourth inning alone and eight runs overall in Friday’s 10-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians.
Gardenhire had expected to get five or six innings out of Nova, but he needed to stop the bleeding fast.
“So we’re trying to hold it there,” Gardenhire said. “We threw Norris out there and here in a couple days he’s also supposed to be the backup to (Michael) Fulmer and he said he’s fine.