Tyler Holton's value understated but vital to Detroit Tigers bullpen

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Holton’s weapon of choice against right-handed hitters, especially the Red Sox right-handers Saturday, is the cutter.

He used the cutter to get three rollover groundouts. He threw four of them to Caleb Durbin, all at the outer edge, back-door cutters, the last was painted at the bottom rail for strike three.

“I really felt in sync,” said Holton, who has allowed just one run in 9.1 innings this season. “I like to think I can use any pitch to be that (main) pitch for that outing. I would love for every single pitch to be that consistent. But that’s not always the case. Yesterday, the cutter was in a good rhythm.

“Whenever the catcher gives you a head-nod after a pitch, it’s like, ‘That’s it, you stay right there.’”

He got a bunch of head-nods from catcher Jake Rogers.

The cutter is in the fastball family, at least in terms of how Statcast classifies it. Holton throws his at 87 mph. He can also spot four-seamers and sinkers (91-92 mph) but those pitches attack vertically — four-seamers typically up, sinkers down.

The cutter comes out of the hand looking like a fastball, but it has late horizontal cut, which is diabolical to right-handed hitters when thrown in the right spots.

“When I want to throw it backdoor (on the outer edge to right-handed hitters), I like it to move off the plate to on the plate,” Holton said. “The hitter might mentally shut down. I like to have that ball-to-strike movement.”

That’s what he got from Ceddanne Rafaela and Kolten Wong, both hit rollover grounders to short trying to pull an outside pitch.

“When I want to go inside, I want it to go strike to ball,” Holton said. “They are thinking it’s a fastball middle and then it bangs in on their hands.”

That’s what happened to Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who got jammed on an inside cutter and fisted it out to shortstop.

“I was doing a good job of finding both lanes,” Holton said.

Right-handed hitters are 1 for 15 against Holton’s cutter. His fastball run value, per Statcast, is plus-5, which ranks in the top 96th percentile in baseball.

Left-handed hitters, like Roman Anthony, who Holton struck out in the eighth inning, get the task of trying to hit his sinker and sweeper. Lefties are 1 for 11 against that combo this year.

“Holton’s been in every inning and every situation imaginable and I have a ton of confidence in him,” Hinch said. “And he has a ton of confidence that he’s going to make pitches.”

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tyler Holton's value understated but vital to Detroit Tigers' bullpen