Toronto — It seemed curious at first.

Tigers manager AJ Hinch pulled Reese Olson after six innings and 85 pitches Saturday after he’d recorded 12 straight outs while clinging to a 1-0 lead.

It became more of a concern when the Tigers’ bullpen lost the lead and ultimately the game, with the Blue Jays winning 2-1 on a two-out, walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth by Ernie Clement.

Turns out, pulling Olson wasn’t a strategy.

“His ring finger on his right hand started bothering him,” Hinch said after the game.

Olson was brilliant, allowing only one hit (by Bo Bichette leading off the bottom of the first) and one walk with six strikeouts. But the finger started bothering him when he threw one of his most effective pitches, the changeup.

And in a one-run game in the middle of May, the Tigers erred on the side of caution.

“I think it probably would’ve been fine,” Olson said. “Everyone is playing safe. I’ve never had this before. It started bothering me later in the outing. Little bit of irritation.”

It wasn’t a blister and it didn’t feel like a nerve-related hot spot. He said it was more like a cramp.

“I’m not too worried about it,” he said.

It was a tough way to end such a dominant performance.

Olson had precise command of his entire arsenal, with his four-seam fastball and sinker hitting 96 mph regularly. Off the well-placed fastballs, he was getting 13 to 16 inches of arm-side movement with his changeup and between minus-6 and minus-14 inches of vertical break with his slider.

In other words, those two pitches were coming out of the same arm slot and moving sharply in opposite directions.

Olson got five whiffs on nine swings with each pitch.

BOX SCORE: Blue Jays 2, Tigers 1

“I was commanding (the fastballs) a little better than I did in my last outing,” Olson said. “When I can stick the four-seam and the sinker down and kind of get them to one side of the plate and command it well, the hitters have to respect that and that’s when I get the swing-and-miss with (the slider and changeup).”

In his previous outing, the Red Sox right-handed hitters went 6-for-10 against him. On Saturday, the Blue Jays’ right-handed hitters were 1-for-11.

“Going back to the last outing, I didn’t execute the four-seamers and sinkers in the zone and they didn’t have to respect the off-speed and they took advantage of it,” Olson said. “Today it was more sticking the four-seam down and away to lefties and the sinker was getting into the righties. Once I established that, they had to respect the off-speed.”

Spencer Torkelson’s 12th home run of the season in the second inning had the Tigers up 1-0 going into the seventh.

Then walks started happening.

“There was a lot in this game,” Hinch said. “Whether it was us not tacking on (runs) early, then there wasn’t a ton of action. They did a bullpen game (six different pitchers) and their guys came in and got a lot of outs. And we couldn’t seem to keep the leadoff runner off base, including the walks.

“In a close game, you kind of hang in and maybe it won’t burn you. But we definitely created some issues.”

It started in the seventh when righty Beau Brieske walked two of the three hitters he faced, both right-handed hitters. Tyler Holton cleaned up that mess, getting a one-pitch double play to end the inning. But those two walks meant the Blue Jays lineup would turn over for the ninth.

Holton walked Clement to start the eighth, after he’d gotten ahead 1-2.

After Clement was bunted to second by Nathan Lukes, right-hander Will Vest was summoned to face lefty pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk.

Kirk sliced an RBI single down the right-field line to score Clement.

Right-hander Brenan Hanifee pitched the ninth. He got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out to second but gave up a double to Daulton Varsho. After getting George Springer to ground out, Hinch issued an intentional walk to pinch-hitter Anthony Santander.

Clement foiled the strategy, slapping the walk-off single to right field, ending the Tigers’ four-game winning streak.

The Tigers came in to the game with 249 runs, second only to the Yankees in the American League. But they couldn’t generate any offense against a fleet of Blue Jays relievers (right-hander Yariel Rodriguez, lefty Brendon Little, righty Chad Green, righty Yimi Garcia and righty closer Jeff Hoffman).

“Hitting is tough no matter who’s on the mound,” said Torkelson, whose homer off a hanging changeup from lefty Eric Lauer flew 399 feet into the seats in left-center. “We roll with the punches and feel like we’ve got a shot, no matter who is on the mound or what the matchup says.”

They mustered only three base runners after the second inning (two walks and a single) and two were erased on double plays. In the ninth, Gleyber Torres led off with a walk and was thrown out at second by left fielder Lukes trying to tag and advance on a fly out by Riley Greene.

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky

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