DETROIT >> The Tigers have come through what should be, unless Mother Nature intervenes down the road, the toughest stretch of scheduling for the season — 38 games in 40 days, 19 on the road. And they’ve come through it with the most wins in baseball, 46.

They’ve also come through it with a suddenly battered bullpen.

When Will Vest, who has been the de facto closer, left before the end of the eighth inning Sunday and immediately underwent medical testing, it felt like a crisis point.

The club is expected to release more information about the injury on Tuesday. Manager AJ Hinch, who spoke immediately after the game, only said Vest felt something in his pinky.

A tingling sensation in the fingers can be caused by many things, including the swelling of tendons in the forearm or elbow.

It could be nothing. It could be something. But, as always with injuries, you hope for the best and fear the worst.

“I think injuries are always difficult, no matter what time of year they come up,” Hinch said. “But they are going to pop up, and good teams overcome them.”

Losing Vest for any length of time, obviously, would put a massive strain on a bullpen that’s already in flux.

Veteran John Brebbia was designated for assignment before the game Sunday. Beau Brieske was optioned to Triple-A Toledo on Thursday for what they hope is a brief reset.

Before that, they designated Kenta Maeda for assignment. Jason Foley was lost for the year after shoulder surgery. Alex Lange (lat surgery) has just recently begun throwing to hitters in Lakeland. Lefties Bailey Horn and Sean Guenther have been on the injured list at Toledo.

As the likes of Dylan Smith, Tyler Owens and Matt Gage have recently rotated through — and with the likelihood of Matt Manning, who has fully transitioned to the bullpen, coming up at some point — the workloads have grown heavy for some of the bullpen mainstays.

Vest has thrown 35 innings in 32 games. Brenan Hanifee has thrown 35 innings in 31 games, including 7.1 innings this month. Brant Hurter has thrown 31.1 innings out of the bullpen and Tommy Kahnle 30.

Chase Lee, who has been back in Detroit for less than a month, has pitched in 17 games and thrown 21.1 innings.

It’s a lot and it’s manifested in a 4.98 bullpen ERA this month.

“I think we’re getting close to getting some guys back, which I think will answer some of those questions,” Hinch said. “But clearly there’s opportunities for guys to grab, given some decisions that we’ve made and the roles that are open.”

But what if the so-called closer role opens? What if Vest has to miss some time? For sure, Hinch will double down on mixing and matching his way through the late innings. Kahnle, presumably, since he’s already posted eight saves, could get more ninth-inning opportunities.

But who would take over the primary set-up role Kahnle has filled?

May we submit, Exhibit A, lefty Tyler Holton.

It’s been a curious couple of months for Holton. After two seasons of nearly unblemished brilliance (2.15 ERA, 0.824 WHIP in 125 appearances in 2023 and 2024), he’s wobbled a bit, as his 4.09 ERA would indicate.

“Location is everything for pitchers and right now, I don’t see the ball going where he wants to throw it often enough,” Hinch said. “Backdoor sinkers to lefties leaking middle. Sweepers only get hit when they sit on top of the plate and in the middle. Count leverage is really important for Tyler.

“It’s a reminder that this league, guys will hit mistakes and that’s the difference between the good version versus the one who has to grind a little bit.”

Holton’s last two outings were crisp and clean, a reminder of the pitcher he’s been, a reminder of the pitcher the Tigers need him to be.

“I’ve felt good,” Holton said. “My lanes (to the plate) felt pretty good and that’s all I can really control, just how it’s coming out of my hand, my mechanics and whatnot. Just making sure those things are all still crisp: location, movement on the pitches.

“I’ve felt good pretty much all year. But at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to getting ahead in the count and just playing the game. Not just being habitually 1-0 or 2-1. You’ve got to get to 0-1 and you’ve got to get to 1-2. As long as I’m doing those things, everything else should fall into place.”

The numbers scream the importance of that for Holton. When he’s behind in the count, opponents hit .351 with an .811 slug and 1.267 OPS. When he’s ahead, opponents hit .262 with a .357 slug and .613 OPS.

Statcast has a meatball stat that charts the percentage of pitches thrown in the hitter’s hot spot (middle-middle). Holton is throwing meatballs 7.2% of the time, compared to 5.8% last year.

His cutter and sweeper have been most negatively impacted by his struggles to gain count leverage. His cutter, which had a plus-7 run value last year, is at plus-1, with hitters slugging nearly 100 points higher off it this year. The sweeper, a plus-4 last year, is at minus-4 this year, with opponents hitting .400 and slugging .600 off it.

“His stuff is fine,” Hinch said. “But location matters more than anything. He’s not getting ahead at the same rate he normally does. That, in itself, is going to shift some of the advantage away from the pitcher on to the hitter.”In his last two outings, Holton got ahead of all but one of the seven hitters he faced and punched out the only hitter he fell behind.

The only base runner he allowed in that stretch reached on an error.

“Through the whole course of the season, you can hand pick any two weeks here or there and be like, this is really good or those two weeks were not so good,” Holton said. “But living day to day, you don’t know which two-week stretch you are in the middle of currently.

“You could be on the cusp of another good two weeks or you could be in the middle of a tough two weeks.

“Always you are thinking you are about to go on a great two weeks.”

There would be no better time than right now for Holton to put together a hot streak.

That would be important because Detroit’s bullpen has surrendered a total of 12 runs in their last 13 innings of work.