HOUSTON – Mike Pelfrey walked the tight wire, a lot of times with runners on base, a couple times with the bases loaded, one time with nobody out.
He walked half a dozen batters, allowed a handful of hits, started off a sinkerball pitcher, morphed into a junkball pitcher and at times tonight, appeared to pull a rabbit out of his hat, stepping off that tight wire with another scoreless inning.
Pelfrey was a magician with no tricks against the Astros: He didn’t have a sinkerball, not a commanding fastball or much confidence in his curveball.
But somehow, someway, the Detroit Tigers’ veteran right-hander walked that tight wire through six innings of one-run baseball.