DETROIT — It’s always a mistake to overreact to a small sample size, especially in a six-month, 162-game season.

But we’re human. It’s hard to look upon this recent stretch of games and not be at least a little concerned about the Tigers’ bullpen. It’s been tagged for 38 runs over the last seven games before Tuesday.

Alex Lange, one of the back-end pillars, has been optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Shelby Miller, another back-end, path-to-victory option for manager AJ Hinch has been on the injured list since May 12 with a nerve issue in his elbow. He was scheduled to make his first rehab outing at Triple-A Toledo Tuesday.

Jason Foley, who had essentially served as the unlabeled closer for most of April, has had his struggles and is working through a mechanical adjustment.

That’s put an extraordinary burden on lefties Tyler Holton and Andrew Chafin, plus right-hander Will Vest, who Hinch is now mixing and matching to get through the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

“We are willing to go any route to get to the finish line,” Hinch said Tuesday, before the game with the Pirates was postponed due to rainstorms in the area. “Depending on what happens in the game and we how we get there and what their appetite to pinch-hit is and who they have available.

“It’s always changing given that we have a flexible bullpen and no defined roles.”

The flexibility has served the Tigers well, especially earlier in the season when Hinch could play matchup games in the seventh and eighth, knowing Foley would be there for most situations in the ninth.

That security net doesn’t feel as secure these days.

“The lineup we face is always going to add a little something different (to how he uses the bullpen),” Hinch said. “We went into a couple of series where there were a boatload of left-handed hitters and that got Chafin in the game more and then Holton in the back end.”

Holton earned his first save of the season on Saturday after Foley went through the heart of the Blue Jays' order in the eighth. But on Sunday, both Holton and Foley gave up three runs each.

And Hinch used recently recalled Mason Englert to get the final three outs in the top of the ninth. Englert was going to start the top of the 10th.

Right-handers Alex Faedo and Beau Brieske, along with lefty Joey Wentz, have been used mostly in multi-inning bridge roles, though Faedo, with Lange in Toledo, might be getting more leverage opportunities later in games.

Short-sample results aside: This bullpen, as it is presently constructed, isn’t missing many bats. There is a lot of soft-contact, for sure, but not a lot of punch-outs. Chafin, most notably, is an example of the perils of balls in play. He gave up six earned runs in his last three innings covering five outings but the opponent batting average on balls in play over that stretch was .615.

Chafin, despite a meek 31% hard-hit rate, has a 4.41 ERA and 1.469 WHIP.

“Chafin’s got the raw end of the deal,” Hinch said. “He’s been a little unlucky. There’s zero concern with him.”

The strikeout and swing-and-miss percentages for the Tigers’ relievers are among the lowest in the American League: Foley (18.2, 21), Vest (16, 23), Chafin (23.6, 28.2), Faedo (21, 32.8), Brieske (15, 27.5) and Wentz (25.5, 28.3).

Canha do

Mark Canha didn’t let the moment go by without at least some quick reflection.

“I mean, it’s one of those things when I took a moment in the outfield to appreciate it and say, ‘That’s pretty cool,’” Canha said. “Hopefully there will be many more.”

Canha’s fifth-inning double Sunday was the 800th hit of his 10-year career. He is one of 29 active big-leaguers to have produced at least 800 hits with at least a .350 career on-base percentage.

“If you would have told me when I was just starting my career that I was going to get 800 hits, I’d be pretty proud of that,” he said.

It was a three-hit game for him Sunday, including a clutch, two-out, two-run single that tied the game in the bottom of the eighth. Hard to fathom, watching those at-bats, that Canha had struggled so mightily for most of May.

In the first 17 games of the month he was in a 9-for-64 slide (.141) with 21 strikeouts.

“It happens,” he said. “You go through slumps. It’s one of the reasons this game is beautiful. You have to solve the puzzle.”

Canha said solving the puzzle took nearly three weeks.

“When you go through stretches like that, you have to be honest with yourself and say, I have to make a real change,” he said. “Obviously, I’m doing something mechanical. There’s only so much you can do mentally and preparation-wise."

“At some point when that happens, you have to say, ‘OK, it’s mechanical. Clearly something is off here.’ And then go address it,” he said.

As Canha explained it, he felt disconnected at the plate. He was opening his hips too early and overstretching his stride. That caused his bat to lag and drag too slowly through the hitting zone.

“I like to feel the back side and the swing where it’s one piece,” he said. “Everything moving all at once through the ball.”

But translating the mechanical adjustment back into the muscle memory takes a minute, especially when you are facing a fleet of elite pitchers every night who get paid to disrupt your timing and make you look bad at the plate.

“It’s not like I waited a week of struggling to try and do something,” he said. “It was the first day and I’ve been working on it for three weeks trying to figure out how to solve this thing. I found something that worked the last couple of days."

“There will be other peaks and valleys throughout the season. You just have to keep an ear close to the ground and pay attention to whether or not you are slacking,” he said.

Around the horn

The Tigers didn’t immediately announce their starters for the doubleheader. Tarik Skubal will start Game 1 against Pirates right-hander Jared Jones. The Tigers are listing TBA in Game 2 to face right-hander Paul Skenes. Most likely, right-hander Matt Manning will be called up from Triple-A Toledo to serve as the 27th man and start Game 2.

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