The Detroit Tigers scheduled their bullpen to cover six innings on Saturday.
But Casey Mize – who threw three perfect innings on 34 fields on his Sept. 5 outing – wasn’t as electrifying against the Tampa Bay Rays, who lead the American League East. Under strict workload restrictions, Mize’s pitch count forced his exit after two innings, which meant the Relievers had to cover seven frames.
By the time Mize left, the Rays already had the runs they needed.
But the Rays continued to pile up and gave the Tigers a 7-2 defeat on Saturday in the second of three games even in the series at Comerica Park. Detroit finished 3-for-31 with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Against Mize, Tampa Bay scored three runs on three hits and one walk.
“The story of the night is that they simply took control of the game,” said Tigers manager AJ Hinch. “It never felt like we were back in the game after the three in the second (inning) and the two after that (the fourth inning). They were in control of the game and could do what they needed.”
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The Tigers (67-76) fell into an early deficit, but not before Mize made a quick first inning. He withdrew three of the four thugs he faced – Nelson Cruz reached safely on a bloop single – in only 13 pitches. Mize beat Ji-Man Choi with an increased fastball for the third out and his shortened start seemed destined to succeed.
“The way the first two hitters went, I thought he could go four (innings),” said Hinch. “The game has changed a lot during this second inning. That certainly accelerated my plan for Casey tonight.
Mize threw an atypical 35 pitches in the second. He defeated Randy Arozarena with a nasty slider and won an eight-pitch clash for the first out before Tampa Bay’s offense perked up.
A one-out triple from Joey Wendle set the tone and the Rays used their aggressiveness on the bases to take a 1-0 lead. After a grounder against third baseman Jeimer Candelario, Wendle started towards home plate. Candelario fired at catcher Eric Haase, but his day was too late. (The Tigers challenged home plate referee James Hoyer’s reputation, but lost.)
“With the naked eye I thought he was outside,” said Hinch. “The way the game with the infield was, (Wendle) ran inside the line, and that’s exactly what they’re taught to do. That’s how the good teams do it with an aggressive base run. I have to talk to Candy, but it looked like this.” As if the throw was a touch inwards and Haase with the sweep tag (Wendle) could bypass it. A game changer in the sense that it changed the scoreboard and the swing of that inning. “
The next batsman, Kevin Kiermaier, drilled another triple on the left center to take a 2-0 lead. Three pitches in his matchup with Taylor Walls, Mize advanced with a 1-2 count. This at-bat, however, lasted eight pitches and ended in a walk.
Brandon Lowe’s subsequent sacrificial flight resulted in a 3-0 lead.
Of Mize’s 48 pitches, he threw 28 for strikes and knocked out two. For eleven thugs, he advanced first pitch strikes against seven of them. He also made three turns and missed shots: two with his slider and one with his splitter.
Hutchison leads bullpen
The Tigers went on to make two new additions to the roster for the third, fourth and fifth innings. Bryan Garcia, who had not played in the major leagues since July 6, gave his team 1⅔ innings of two-run ball, while Ian Krol – for the first time since August 19 – recorded the final in the fifth inning .
Garcia threw 16 of 21 pitches for strikes; Krol posted five out of seven pitches for strikes.
For the runs of the Rays von Garcia, both in the fourth inning: Wendle hit a solo home run in the right center and Lowe chipped in an RBI single field in order to achieve a 5-0 advantage.
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Ex-starter Drew Hutchison took the hill in sixth place. He did not disappoint on his second appearance since returning from Triple-A Toledo as the Tigers needed length from their bullpen with Mize and Tarik Skubal’s inning limits and Matthew Boyd’s elbow injury.
“He threw the ball very well,” said Hinch. “He kept taking out left-handed hitters, which is very important to him in any role. It’s a really tough line-up with a lot of potent left-handed hitters, so I was very happy with his change, his breakball and his fastball order was pretty Well.”
The 31-year-old threw four innings and threw 28 of 48 pitches for strikes. He allowed a run with two hits and a walk, knocking out two batter. The lone run against him came in the fifth inning when Arozarena hit a victim flight into midfield to give the Rays a 6-1 lead.
“I would have loved to come in and put a zero,” said Hutchison. “This is important when you come out of the enclosure to immediately set a zero. I was disappointed to get in and immediately gave up the run and started pounding. Otherwise I thought I had thrown the ball well. “
After Walls’ single in the sixth inning, Hutchison retired eight times in a row to end his outing. He recorded his two strikeouts – Wendle (slider) and Kiermaier (four-seam fastball) – in eighth place.
Drew Carlton completed ninth place, but Austin Meadows pushed Tampa Bay’s lead to 7-1 with a sacrificial fly.
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Making his second start since returning from the injured list, Rays starter Chris Archer limited the Tigers to one run over four innings.
He only allowed two hits and one walk – hits by Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Cabrera, and Haase’s free pass – while hitting two batters. The Tigers’ first hit came from Schoop to open the fourth inning. He drilled a doppelganger into the left center.
Miguel Cabrera reduced his team’s deficit to 5-1 with an RBI singles right. He has 2,974 career hits; he needs 26 goals in the last 19 regular season games to reach 3rd place. It is unlikely to hit the historic mark before 2022.
“He’s pretty creative with his pitches,” Hinch said of Archer. “He will never actually throw the same litter twice. He developed as a thrower. You can go upstairs and try chasing punches to hit. If you get some, you have a bad count chance. And when you hunt, you hunt. He’s taken control of the game. “
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After Archer was pulled with discomfort in his left Achilles tendon, the Rays turned the game over to their elite bullpen.
That being said, it wasn’t, considering that Rays manager Kevin Cash trusted Dietrich Enns – an election from the 19th round of Central Michigan University in 2012 – with the lead. The 30-year-old Enns started on Saturday with seven career games in the major leagues, five of them in 2021.
But Enns dominated over four no-hit innings.
Victor Reyes was the only runner to score against Enns due to a fielding error by Walls in the shortstop with two outs in the fifth inning. Reyes then stole second base and advanced to third due to a throwing error by catcher Mike Zunino. However, he was stranded when Akil Baddoo refused to swing on 95 mph fastballs in a row.
The left-hander hit six tigers and mowed them down with his two-pitch mix: 33 four-seam fastballs and 26 cutters. Of the 59 fields in Enns, 44 went on strikes. He fired his four-taker for seven swings and missed shots while his cutter picked up four puffs.
Shawn Armstrong started the ninth inning for the Rays. He allowed Robbie Grossman, who has 23 this season, a one-time solo home run to bring the Tigers’ deficit down to 7-2. Cabrera and Candelario were eliminated to end the game.
“Enns came in and threw some really good fastballs and two different cutter variants,” said Hinch. “He was in full control of the game. In the end we had a little run with Robbie’s Homer, but we were never quite there after the first punch they threw.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more about the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.
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