DETROIT — Somewhere in the blur of a white-knuckle pitching duel, Will Vest looked at teammates in the Detroit Tigers bullpen and made a joke. “Actually,” Vest said later, “not really a joke.”

He has only one win in eight outings since the beginning of July, but that's due to a lack of run support from the Tigers' offense -- he's delivered a 2.68 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 62:11 K:BB in 50.1 innings during that span.