For the Detroit Tigers, nothing has come easy for them in the 2022 season. The same can be said for reliever Will Vest, who came in the 9th into a bases loaded situation. But Vest continues to rise to the situation as he struck out Ramon Urias and Rylan Bannon and picked up his first career save as Detroit hung on for the 4-2 victory to improve to 10-23.

Vest, who was a Rule 5 draft pick in 2020 by Seattle before returning to Detroit in July and spending the rest of the season in Toledo, continues to see his duties expand. In his last 9 appearances, he has not allowed a run in just over 12 innings of work. In that span, he has struck out 16, allowed just two walks, and batters are hitting just .061 against him.

Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said on Wednesday that Vest is “fearless” and mentioned how hard he has worked since the offseason. The gains have shown in his pitch movement. While the gains on his slider and change-up are small, it has helped generate more swings and misses. His change-up has generated a negative run value of -2 and his slider is generating a whopping 41.9% whiff rate.

The Detroit Tigers offense gets off the pine

As Detroit goes on offense on Friday night, Miguel Cabrera continues his march toward Cooperstown. He put Detroit on the board with an RBI double, scoring Javier Baez. Then, he followed that up with a solo shot to left field off Jordan Lyles in the 6th, his 504th of his career, which ties him with Hall of Famer Eddie Murray for 27th all-time. Spencer Torkelson went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and Willi Castro smoked a double in the right field corner for his only hit of the game.

Eduardo Rodriguez gets his first win in a Tigers uniform, going 6.2 innings, allowing five hits, striking out 3 and walking 4. Michael Pineda takes the hill Saturday for Detroit as he will face left-hander Bruce Zimmermann.