Casey Mize didn’t have a great outing, but he was victimized a bit by his teammates in this one as well. A Jo Adell comebacker caught him in the wrist in the fourth inning and he had to leave the game. We’ll hope it’s nothing too serious. The bullpen did a pretty solid job the rest of the way, though it was dicey in spots, but the Tigers just did not swing the bats well as the Angels avoided the sweep. The Tigers head to Chicago now to battle the Cubs.
This started off quite well, actually. Ryan Johnson,
a low arm slot right-hander who was the Angels comp pick for losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency, fell behind 2-0 to Kevin McGonigle as the game’s first batter. His next offering was a sinker that got launched to left center field for the rookie’s ninth home run of the year.
Dillon Dingler followed with a pop-up. Colt Keith, coming off a four-hit night, took a 2-2 pitch that nicked the handle of his bat and was caught for an unintentional foul tip strike three. Weird. You can watch baseball forever and you still see something strange happen with regularity. Riley Greene walked on four straight balls, and so it was Spencer Torkelson up with one outs and Greene on first. Tork, coming off a two homer night, whiffed three breaking balls off the edge of the plate away and struck out.
Casey Mize, despite fighting through a recurring groin strain, is having the most effective season of his career. The strikeouts are up, he’s finally getting consistent whiffs off the splitter, and he’s also dialed in the best pair of breaking balls in his career with a firm slider and then a more sweeperish edition at slower speed. The splitter in particular has helped him to smother left-handed hitters almost entirely in the power department. The Angels stacked up right-handed hitters as four of the first five at the top of their order to deal with Mize, so the breaking stuff would be key early on.
Mize quickly got ahead 0-2 with a pair of breaking balls. He missed down with the split as Zach Neto hunted the fastball. Another splitter hung up and was pretty well hit, but Greene caught it right in front of the warning track. Mize whiffed Trout with a firm slider down on the corner. Nolan Schanuel, the lone lefty early on, put up a good fight, fouling off some good 3-2 pitches and finally flicking a little single just over a leaping Kevin McGonigle for a soft serve single. So that made for a longer inning in terms of pitches, but Mize blew Jorge Soler with a well located heater to send us to the second inning.
Kerry Carpenter and Hao-Yu Lee made quick outs to start the frame and James Outman struck out. Mize gave up a leadoff double from Vaughn Grissom. Josh Lowe sacrificed Grisson to third with a bnnt for the first out. Jo Adell flew out to shallow right. So Mize was almost out of it, but Oswaldo Peraza pulled a sharp ground ball and after making a nice diving stop, Keith popped up and airmailed the throw to first in his haste. That scored Grissom and tied the game up. Tyler Heineman was down 1-2, but Mize left a splitter middle-middle, and it got flared into shallow left field for a single that got Peraza to third as he was running on the play. This was less than idea, as it turned the lineup over to Neto.
Mize got ahead 1-2 but Neto laid off a good splitter. Mize lost a slider that ended up right in the upper corner of the zone. Jake Rogers missed the opportunity to challenge and get a strike three. The mistakes were piling up a bit and Mize’s pitch count climbed towards 50 pitches as Neto fouled off foul straight sliders down and away. It felt like it was time to try something else, but Rogers quintupled down and the final slider away drew a whiff to turn away a potential rally. 1-1 game.
Rogers grounded out to open the third, and that turned the Tigers lineup over and brought Mr. McGonigle to the dish. The rookie fouled off a pair of hittable sinkers and eventually popped out as Johnson and his jerky, marionette with tight strings delivery was giving the Tigers some timing issues despite the mediocre stuff. Dingler, the DH in this one, grounded out to third to end the frame.
Mize walked Mike Trout to start the bottom half and his pitch count stood at 54 pitches already. Schanuel ripped a single to right as Mize continued to struggle with his command. He bounced back to put Jorge Soler down 0-2 and got a pop-out to McGonigle for the first out. A double play ball was advised but instead, Grissom made for a lengthy at-bat before whiffing on a splitter for the second out. Trout had a read on Mize and easily stole third on the pitch. After getting ahead of Lowe, Mize missed with a slider and then a high splitter and was visibly getting irritated with himself, but his 72nd pitch was a nasty split that drew a whiff and turned the Angels away. Still, it was going to be tough for Mize to go even five in this one, and Keider Montero was not available after closing out Friday’s game and due to start on Wednesday against the Cubs.
Keith lifted a 350 footer to center for the first out of the fourth. Greene struck out and Torkelson flew out. This what not what Casey Mize needed. He didn’t need a sharp 109 mph comebacker that caught his right wrist off the bat of Jo Adell either, but that’s what happened to start the bottom half. Mize collected it and made the play, but AJ Hinch and the trainer came out and Mize was flexing his wrist as they took him out of the game. Hopefully there’s nothing broken. It didn’t look that serious but it was a pretty short conversation too. Drew Anderson began warming in the bullpen to take over.
Anderson dropped an evil changeup in for strike three to punch Peraza, beginning his outing in style. The Tigers would need a few innings from the right-hander. Heineman grounded out to Hao-Yu Lee to end the inning. Nicely job on short notice there from Anderson.
Kerry Carpenter was out front on a changeup and popped out to start the fifth. Lee lifted a routine fly ball, and that was 12 straight retired for Johnson. Outman tried to check his swing with two strikes and instead tapped a swinging bunt towards third for a single. Rogers fell behind but stayed patient and drew a walk as Outman danced off base, perhaps occupying a bit of space in Johnson’s head. So McGonigle stepped in for his third plate appearance, this time with a runner in scoring position. Kurt Suzuki had a lefty warming up, but apparently he wasn’t ready yet. Johnson and Heineman absolutely refused to let Kevin extend his arms and threw everything inside, eventually issuing the walk to load the bases for Dillon Dingler.
Johnson’s pitch count was rapidly running up to 90 and this seemed like his last batter. He didn’t give in, spinning a slider off the plate 2-2 to draw a tentative whiff from Dingler and escape the bases loaded jam. Rats.
Anderson fell behind 3-0, worked his way to a full count, and then missed badly with a curveball in a 3-2 count to walk Neto. He then missed with three four straight to Trout. After missing a bases loaded opportunity, this did not bode well for this game. Chris Fetter went out to chill Anderson out. He fired a fastball for a first pitch strike to Schanuel, but a second one in the same spot got labeled for a soft single to center field, and the bases were loaded with no outs. With no choice but to throw it in there, Anderson got ahead of Soler and he just bounced one softly enough to shortstop to get Neto in as McGonigle threw out Soler. 2-1 Angels. Anderson turned to the curveball a little more, and Grissom ripped a hot one-hopper to third. Keith handled that with no chance for Trout to score on it. Anderson got ahead of Lowe but then missed twice for a full count and then yanked a fastball to issue his third walk of the inning. That was it for the mercurial Anderson. The bases were loaded with two outs, and Brenan Hanifee entered. He quickly got Adell to ground out, and the Tigers were very fortunate to end the inning down just a run through five innings.
Lefty Samy Natera was in for the Angels in the sixth, and so Matt Vierling entered to pinch-hit for Colt Keith. Vierling swung over a slider and struck out. So did Riley Greene, and Torkelson lifted a routine fly ball to end the inning.
Peraza started off the bottom half with a grounder up the middle for a single off of Hanifee. Peraza stole second base with Heineman at the dish. A ground out moved Peraza to third. Neto paddled a single through the right side, and it was 3-1 Angels. Neto then stole second as Rogers made an errant throw. Trout grounded out to Lee for the second out. Tyler Holton took over at that point against the left-handed hitting Schanuel and got him to ground out to Vierling in his first chance at third base on the year.
So, the Tigers had really struggled at the plate on getaway day. They were fortunate to be down just two runs. Coming back to steal this one would be great, and the Angels bullpen is not the toughest of tests around. Right-hander Chase Silseth came on for the Angels in the seventh.
Carpenter grounded out to Neto to start the inning. Lee got a 1-2 heater at the top of the zone and slashed a shot into right field for a single. Lee ran with Outman at the plate and slid into second base as the center fielder lifted a routine fly ball to left. Lee had to beat feet back to first base and there were two outs. Zach McKinstry pinch-hit for Rogers but he grounded out.
Eduardo Valencia took over behind the plate for Rogers. McKinstry entered at shortstop, moving McGonigle to third and Vierling to center field. Holton struck out Soler but allowed a single to Grissom. Holton clipped Jose Siri, who pinch-hit for Lowe, but he bounced back to punch out Adell on a good changeup. Peraza popped out to end the inning.
Right-hander Sam Bachman took over for the Angels in the eighth and got McGonigle to fly out to Trout. Dingler grounded out to third, and Vierling tapped one back to the mound. Pretty weak effort there, guys.
Kenley Jansen came on in the bottom half to try and hold the score. He walked Heineman without throwing much close to the zone, but after a lengthy battle he whiffed Neto on a cutter. He spotted another good 2-2 cutter up and away to whiff Trout as well. Heineman stole second on a first pitch to Schanuel that was called a strike but was not really close and correctly challenged, but Schanuel flew out weakly to right. Solid effort from Jansen, but the Tigers needed to wake up immediately at the plate.
Ryan Zeferjahn entered the game looking for the save. He got ahead of Riley Greene but then was scared to give him something to hit as Greene worked a full count and then launched a solo shot just into the seats in right field. 3-2 Angels. Torkelson popped out to second base for the first out, and Kerry Carpenter lined out to left field, so it was up to Hao-Yu Lee. Unfortunately, tonight there was no one on base for him and he popped out as well to end it.
The Tigers are 24-15 since the beginning of June, but of course that just got them back into the conversation. They’ll need to keep up the pace against the Cubs, and then they’ll come home to face the Royals and Orioles before a big west coast swing takes them to the trade deadline.
