[EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on www.TheOaklandPress.com on Sunday, May 11, but is being republished here, due to a broken link.]

DETROIT — Robbie Ray did his job.

The rookie, acquired in the Doug Fister trade, came up and made two excellent spot starts, holding the fort with Anibal Sanchez on the disabled list.

He got on the plane for Baltimore with the rest of the Tigers after Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins, when he threw six scoreless innings, but the bullpen and two misplays in the outfield blew his chances at a second win.

Couldn’t ask for much better of a start to a career.

“It went pretty well. I don’t know if I could ask for anything more — maybe a complete game. But, no, I couldn’t ask for anything more from the first two starts,” said the 22-year-old Ray, with a wry smile. “It feels good. You feel good about yourself, and you carry yourself a little better. The nerves weren’t there today. I was a little more calm after the first start. It definitely feels good, though.

“To do that over a five-day basis, you feel like you belong.”

But, contrary to the popular groundswell of opinion, he’ll probably get on a plane from Baltimore and rejoin the Toledo Mud Hens at home next Wednesday, as long as everything plays out well in Sanchez’s simulated game on Tuesday.

At that point, Ray’s job as a fill-in starter will be over — until they might need him again.

Could he stay with the Tigers, and pitch out of the bullpen? Sure, that’s possible.

But then, once he’s no longer stretched out as a starter (as happened to Drew Smyly last year), they’ll have to find someone else to fill the role that Ray inherited when the Tigers traded for him.

Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to change the plan mid-stream.

“We’ve discussed (Ray’s role). The truth is, he probably has to pitch, wherever he is. If and when Anibal Sanchez comes back, there’s going to have to be a decision made with him, but I think the best thing for Robbie Ray would be to continue to pitch, to continue to work on that curveball, and to polish his other pitches to be a major-league starter,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said Sunday.

“He’s had two outings here, and pitched well, filled in nicely. But I do think, in the big picture, he needs to pitch. He’s still a young kid.”

Ray has pitched one game in relief as a professional — the warm-up inning he threw at Toledo before his call-up. He’s willing to do whatever the Tigers ask of him.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, which is whatever is asked of me,” Ray said. “If that’s the bullpen, great. I’d love to stay up here. I know that I’m a starting pitcher, but I’m absolutely open to whatever I can do to help out the team.”

That begs the question: How CAN he best help the team?

Is it as a starter, ready to plug in, should injury (or doubleheaders) strike? Or is it as a reliever, who might give the big-league bullpen a boost, but whose short-term progress is stifled by a move to a new role?

“I mean, we’ll make that decision when we have to. But generally speaking, if you want him to be a starter at the major league level, he has to pitch as a starter. Now, does that mean he couldn’t fill in in the bullpen? Sure, he absolutely could. But the question is, is it best for Robbie Ray to pitch as a starter, or as a reliever, long term?” said Ausmus, noting that Ray is still working on rounding out his repertoire.

“As a starter at the Major League level, you need at least three pitches. The change-up is his best pitch, the most consistent off-speed pitch. But I think to put him over the top, it’s going to be the curveball, eventually.

“It comes and goes. He messed with it in spring training, and it’s coming along slowly. But it’s going to be inconsistent.”

To maximize the value for that trade, the Tigers need Ray to be ready to step into the rotation next season, once free agency begins to open up holes.

They also need him to be ready to start.

Just ask a team like the Angels how fun it is to not have enough pitching depth. Their “sixth starter” is Jose Alvarez, who held that same role with the Tigers last year. He, too, got a win and a no-decision in his first two spot starts with the team.

Detroit lost his remaining four starts last season. Oh, and he gave up five home runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last minor-league start for the Angels.

No, Ray is best off doing his job.

And staying put as a starter.

The essence of good headline writing is using silly puns, plays on words and phrases.


So it was inevitable that Drew Smyly's name would fit that bill perfectly. 


[Look no further than our own "Rookie pitcher puts Smyly face on 5-1 homestand" to see what I mean.]


But the funniest part of the whole thing? It's kind of an oxymoron. At least when he's on the mound, Drew Smyly isn't tremendously smiley. 


He seems to be no-nonsense. All business.


That's the thing that — apart from his clear propensity to throw strikes — his teammates and manager have noticed most about the 22-year-old through his first big league spring training and the start of the regular season.


"The thing is, he’s a really — he doesn’t show any emotions. He could be doing bad, but you can’t really tell," said Tigers catcher Alex Avila, who wasn't really sure how the rookie was faring emotionally, when he loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning of his MLB debut last week. 
"You really get to know guys now, how they react in adversity, times like that. But he’s a cool customer. You can tell. He doesn’t get rattled easily. His demeanor, his poise, everything is very good. Even when he was struggling a little bit, just got back up there, and went right after them. You like that. You want that in guys. You can teach that. You’ve gotta be born with it, and he is. He’s pitched in big situations before, in circumstances where things are on the line, and he’s been through it, just fine. I know he was pretty excited about this one."


The Tigers might want to get a little excited about this one, too.


Despite not having pitched above the Double-A level in his first year of professional ball, Smyly's credentials as the organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year earned him a spot in the six-man derby for the fifth starter role. Even before spring training began, General Manager Dave Dombrowski tabbed him as one to watch, saying that some in the organization felt he might be the most ready.


In the end, it was his composure that may have won him the job. More than anything truly impressive that he did, it was the fact that didn't let the mounting pressure — as the competition narrowed from six to just three late in camp — get to him at all that separated him. His competitors can't necessarily say the same, as two of them — Andy Oliver and Duane Below — both had shaky starts in the final week of the competition.


So far, it doesn't look like joining the big league rotation has ruffled Smyly's feathers all that much, either. In his first start, despite the fact that he lasted just four innings, as his pitch count hit 90 way too early, he kept the Tigers in the game. He was disappointed he didn't go deeper.


In Tuesday's second start, he was much more efficient, doing just what he'd promised he'd do, going six innings, giving up just one unearned run. That came in the third inning, when he was hit by Alcides Escobar's line drive in the small of the back, on the first truly hard-hit ball of the evening. 


"It was pretty scary. He got smoked in the back pretty good," manager Jim Leyland said in his postgame TV interview.


Smyly tracked the ball down near the first-base line, and still tried to get Escobar out at first, but fired a bullet low, near the shoetops of Prince Fielder, and on past. The error put Escobar on second, and he'd come in two pitches later, as Alex Gordon singled to center on an 0-2 pitch to tie the game at 1-1.


Another instance where Smyly could have folded under the pressure, and let the inning snowball. He certainly could have come out of the game after getting dinged by the line drive.


Instead, he calmly got a fielder's choice to end the third, then wiggled out of a two-on, two-out jam in the  fourth to keep it 1-1. He'd last three full innings after getting hit by the line drive, coming out after throwing six innings, giving up the lone unearned run on seven hits, striking out four. His only walk was an intentional pass to Jeff Francouer in the sixth. 


While he still has yet to get a win, he's already shown that he deserved the trust the Tigers organization has placed in him. He'll do exactly what's expected of the fifth man in the rotation: Keep the Tigers in the game.


"That’s what we want him to do. As our fifth guy, pitch five, six innings, keep us in the game, give us a chance to win," Avila said. "That’s it."
So far, he's done that perfectly. He left his first start with the Tigers down 1-0. He left his second with the score tied 1-1. 


With a team that has the potential to score a ton of runs, that's perfect. 
"You’re not worried about being down 1-0, or 2-0, or whatever. You know this team’s going to go out and score runs every game," Smyly said after his debut. "So you’ve gotta stay within yourself, make sure you keep getting outs, keep it close."


And stay cool.

The Tigers will run the following lineup out against Jeff Niemann and the Rays for the finale of the season-opening homestand:

Austin Jackson, CF
(.500 AVG, 8R, 2-2B, 1-3B, 1 HR, 4 BB, .583 OBP)
Brennan Boesch, RF
(.174 AVG, 1R, 1 RBI)
Miguel Cabrera, 3B
(.471 AVG, 6R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 5 BB [2 IBB], 1.059 SLG)
Prince Fielder, 1B (.333 AVG, 5R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB, .455 SLG)
Delmon Young, LF (.294 AVG, 2R, 1 RBI)
Alex Avila, C (.333 AVG, 4R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .800 SLG)
Jhonny Peralta, SS (.316 AVG, 2 R, 2-2B, 4 RBI, .421 SLG)
Andy Dirks, DH (.364 AVG, 1 R, 1-2B, 1 RBI)
Ryan Raburn, 2B (.125 AVG)

The Tigers are hitting .305 as a team coming in. The MLB average is .237, while the AL average is .236.

RAYS LINEUP:
Desmond Jennings, CF (.286 AVG, 4 R, 7 K)
Carlos Pena, 1B (.389 AVG, 1-2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI)
Evan Longoria, 3B (.471 AVG, 2-2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 BB)
Jeff Keppinger, DH (.333 AVG, 1 HR, 2 R)
Ben Zobrist, RF (.278 AVG, 3 RBI, 1-2B, 1-3B)
Sean Rodriguez, SS (.091 AVG, 2 BB, 1 K)
Jose Lobaton, C (.143 AVG, 2 BB, 2 K)
Elliott Johnson, 2B (.000 AVG, 1 BB, 1 K)
Matt Joyce, LF (.250 AVG, 1-3B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 8 K)

Jeff Niemann, RHP (vs. Detroit: 5 GP, 4 GS, 1-2, 3.48 ERA, 23 K)

The Tigers sent left-hander Andy Oliver down to Triple-A Toledo on Thursday, meaning the battle for the fifth starter job — which started out with six internal contestants — is down to just two: Drew Smyly or Duane Below.

Oliver, who'd seemed to overcome some of his control demons that plagued him last season — at both the big-league level and at Triple-A Toledo — earlier this spring, put back-to-back shaky outings together in his last two Grapefruit League starts.

"Nobody's down on Andy Oliver. We just didn't feel like, at this time, he was the guy," Tigers manager Jim Leyland told reporters Thursday, as MLive's Chris Iott passed along on Twitter.

At this point, it looks like it'll either be Smyly or Below heading north with the team to start the season. Smyly, who threw well in Wednesday's start against the Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla., is scheduled for one more spring start on Monday. Below is scheduled to pitch Friday.

But it could be both — or neither. General manager Dave Dombrowski could still decide to go outside the organization for a starter — "My general manager has a tendency to surprise you," manager Jim Leyland said, after refusing to rule out the possibility that the Tigers would look for an external solution — or the Tigers could take both north, with one — Below, almost assuredly — in the bullpen as a long reliever.

And there's this to factor in, as well. The Tigers won't need a fifth starter right off the bat, given the number of off (weather) days built in to the first few series. Last year's fifth starter, Phil Coke, did not start his first game until April 9, making two relief appearances in the season-opening series in New York.

So what would Leyland like to have happen, ideally?

"I gave you enough hints through the course of the spring what I’d ideally like to have ... but, it doesn’t mean it’s going to play out that way," Leyland said, in response to verbal fishing expeditions by reporters over the weekend. "When you have four or five right-handed starters, you would probably like someone to pitch long from the left side. But it doesn’t mean you have him. That doesn’t mean that’s going to be the decision. So don’t mark that down. Could it be? It could be. But ..."

While the Tigers still have a decision to make between the more experienced, veteran Below — who started twice in 14 MLB appearances with the Tigers last season — and the inexperienced but composed Smyly — who did not pitch above Double-A in his first professional season last year — there is an upshot to the whole situation.

The Toledo rotation (as pointed out by Mud Hens beat writer John Wagner) will be stacked with former candidates for the fifth starter job: Oliver, Jacob Turner, Adam Wilk and Casey Crosby.

The Detroit Tigers came into spring training with six internal candidates for the fifth starter position, but that number is being steadily whittled down by attrition and elimination as camp goes on.

Lefty Adam Wilk was the latest name removed from the hat, as his contract was optioned to Toledo Saturday morning, cutting the number of players in camp to 38.

The 24-year-old Wilk, who appeared in five games for the Tigers last season, had a 7.50 ERA in 12 spring innings, giving up 19 hits and 10 runs.

Optioning Wilk leaves Andy Oliver, Drew Smyly and Duane Below as the most likely candidates to claim the fifth starter job. Casey Crosby, one of the other early candidates, was optioned out earlier in camp, while Jacob Turner is just starting to begin throwing again after a "dead-arm" period.

Smyly has been the dark-horse candidate throughout camp, considering his control of his arsenal. Tigers manager Jim Leyland was asked Friday whether Smyly's stuff could be considered exceptional.

"I wouldn’t say that. I think he’s got very good stuff. If you’re talking about Sandy Koufax stuff, no. Not many of those guys around. I think he’s got very good stuff," Leyland said.
"I think Oliver’s got very good stuff, and I think Crosby’s got very good stuff. And Adam Wilk has very useable stuff — there’s a lot of pitchers in the big leagues who don’t throw more than 94-95 mph; a lot of guys pitching at 89-90-91. Jacob Turner has good stuff."

The Tigers still have some time before having to make the final decision on the fifth starter. It may be the last of the three most major roster decisions the Tigers have to make before Opening Day.

"I think they possibly could all funnel down to one day, but you could possibly make one of those decisions sooner than the other two. You could probably get your position players, but the bullpen spot and the fifth starter’s probably going to go real late — because we don’t know. We have no idea," Leyland said.
"We have a better idea than we did a week or so ago, because it looks like Turner’s obviously going to be eliminated from that, right now, because of his health situation, and Crosby’s already down. We do have a better idea than we did a week or two ago, but we don’t have any idea. We’re just continuing to run ‘em out there. Like I told you before, I’ll be thrilled to make that announcement to you guys, but as you know, there’s not going to be any hints or anything, because I don’t have any hints for you.
"I really don’t."

If you missed it on Twitter earlier today, here's a short synopsis of the highlights from Dave Dombrowski's Q&A session at the DSBA Tiger Day banquet: