After a disappointing weekend series at home against the White Sox, the Tigers packed their bags for the Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, the City So Nice They Named It Twice, figuring if they could make it there, they could make it anywhere. Well, a tight game turned into a laugher with a wild sequence in the seventh, and the Tigers coasted to a comfortable 12-2 victory in the opener of a three-game weeknight series against the Yankees.
Casey Mize took the mound for the Tigers for the twenty-fifth
time this year. It’s been a rough one since the All-Star Break: coming into today he’s made eight starts, thrown 37 innings, and had an ERA of 5.59. July in particular was rough; he righted the ship a bit in his five starts in August, and his previous September start saw him surrender a single run in five innings against the Mets.
Starting for the Yankees was Will Warren, who’s in his first full season in the Major Leagues. He’s been fairly solid this year so far; he’s not striking everyone and their grandmother out, but he generally keeps the ball on the ground — which is kind of a big deal in the cozy confines of Yankee Stadium. He tends not to go too deep into games, and I’d imagine that the Yankees will want to start limiting his innings, with 141 IP coming into tonight’s game, after 132 IP last year. Because, you know, otherwise a pitcher might get injured. Or something.
Aaron Judge did an Aaron Judge-y thing with one out in the first inning with a fat splitter middle-in from Mize, pummelling it into the seats in right-centre for a 1-0 lead. But then Mize found his groove with the splitter, and also was featuring a nice cutter as well.
Warren, meanwhile, was consistently mowing down Tigers hitters: after Gleyber Torres’ double in the first, he set down a bunch of Detroiters in a row, with some low-pitch-count innings thrown in there too.
After Mize had retired nine Yankees in a row himself, Cody Bellinger parked a solo home run over that stupid right-field wall for a 2-0 Yankee lead.
Parker Meadows evened the score in the fifth: Spencer Torkelson walked to break a consecutive-batters-retired streak, and one out later Meadows sent a screaming line drive over that fantastic right-field wall for a two-run home run.
Mize got himself out of a potentially-lethal jam in the bottom of the fifth: Jazz Chisolm Jr. and Austin Wells singled to put two runners on with none out. Then Anthony Volpe, who’s been having a rough go of it this season, was asked to bunt the runners up a base but ended up popping one up to third base for the first out. After that, Mize struck out Ryan McMahon swinging on a splitter… but Trent Grisham was sitting at a 3-0 count, with none of those pitches close to the strike zone, and Ol’ Number Ninety-Nine on deck. Hackin’ on three-and-oh, Grisham flied out to Meadows in centre and that was that. Oh my.
With two outs and a full count on Ben Rice in the sixth, Mize threw a sinker which was, uh, generously called a strike by home-plate umpire Austin Jones.
I’ll take it. But, strap in, folks, because things get fun and weird here.
Fernando Cruz replaced Warren to start the seventh, and Riley Greene sent his first pitch to right for a ground-rule double. Torkelson and Wenceel Pérez walked, loading the bases with none out, and at this point I was saying to myself, through gritted teeth, “Don’t squander this thing, fellas.”
Well, Meadows singled to score Greene for a 3-2 lead, Dillon Dingler walked to make it 4-2, and Cruz was dispatched in favour of Mark Leiter Jr. (Remember how his dad pitched for the Tigers in the early ‘90s?) Trey Sweeney hit a shallow fly ball to centre that nobody bothered to catch, pushing everyone up 90 feet and scoring the fifth Tiger run. Colt Keith got nicked by a splitter, scoring the sixth run.
At this point it was clear that no Yankee pitcher could find home plate with a map, a flashlight and a compass, which was just fine by me. Torres then walked, another run scored, nobody was out, fans in the Bronx were apoplectic, and Tiger fans were smirking mightily. A wild pitch scored Sweeney, and Kerry Carpenter bashed a two-run triple — in a park in which it’s hard to hit one of those — and it was 10-2.
So, let’s recap the inning to this point: double, walk, walk, walk, bloop single, hit-batter, walk, wild pitch, triple.
Tim Hill was brought in to try to get the first out, which he did, and an actual, real-life, Bronx Cheer arose from the crowd. But Torkelson was intentionally walked — wait, what? Why? At this point, who cares? — and Carpenter scored on a groundout by Pérez for an 11-2 score. Meadows hit a nubber to third for an infield single, because that was the only unfilled space left on the bingo card. Dingler then grounded out to third for the final out: he was the fourteenth batter of the inning.
Did you get all that? There’ll be a quiz tomorrow.
Mize’s day was done, and he looked solid against that high-scoring Yankee lineup: four hits, two solo home runs, no walks and eight strikeouts. Chris Paddack was brought in to eat up some innings and not blow the thing, and he started off by striking out Giancarlo Stanton, which ain’t bad; a foulout and a flyout later, he had himself a 1-2-3 seventh.
A walk, error and single in the eighth made it an even dozen runs for the Tigers, and Paddack threw another 1-2-3 inning. Could he get an el-cheapo three-inning save in a blowout?
Indeed he would, with a nine-up, nine-down performance, sealing the victory, striking out four along the way. I mean, I know the Yankees weren’t trying too hard by the end, but if he can do that a time or two in a big game… just think about it, alright?
Final score: Tigers 12, Yankees 2
Talk Amongst Yourselves, I’ll Give You A Topic
- Pitching Chaos doesn’t look like it’d work down the stretch or in the playoffs this year. Or would it? And is there any other choice?
- Is Riley Greene the second-coming of Dave Kingman?
- Who would you start on the mound, and in what order, in a five-game ALDS?
