Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said he had a target of five innings for Casey Mize’s return to the mound after Mize’s stint on the injured list.
And perhaps because Mize has spent the last two seasons surpassing expectations, he threw six innings in his return. Six scoreless innings, in fact, with only two Blue Jays reaching base in the process.
Mize pitched brilliantly in Detroit’s 2-1 extra-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, May 16, allowing only two hits and striking out four batters while walking zero in his first appearance since April 28. It was difficult to tell that Mize was coming off an injury, with the righty pitching at least six scoreless innings for just the second time this season and holding the defending American League champions to just two baserunners during his time on the mound.
And even more important for the Tigers, Mize showed none of the discomfort that knocked him out of a game against the Atlanta Braves last month.
“My body felt good, and [I had] a pretty solid command of things,” Mize said, “I just treated it kind of like I did pre-injury, [saying] ‘hey, let’s just get back into things,’ and went from there.”
Mize efficient and effective
Mize pitched efficiently, facing the minimum number of batters through the first four innings and allowing only three balls with a 95 mph exit velocity or higher, per Statcast. At 71 pitches through six innings, Mize may have even been able to pitch the seventh inning (and possibly the eighth if his trends continued), but Hinch didn’t want to overtax his starter in his first game back.
“He went deeper into the game than I had anticipated at the start of the day, just because I didn’t know how he would respond to the spike in adrenaline and energy,” said Hinch. “We don’t want to be too careful, but we don’t want to mess around with our rotation right now just getting a guy back.”
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Blue Jays scored on the very first Tigers pitch Mize didn’t throw, with left fielder Yohendrick Piñango sending a Kyle Finnegan splitter into the seats in the top of the seventh inning to tie the game at 1-1. The Blue Jays then scored the go-ahead run on a Daulton Varsho single off lefty Tyler Holton in the top of the 10th inning, and the Tigers couldn’t respond in the bottom of the 10th.
But even if the Tigers couldn’t manufacture a win for the second straight game, getting Mize back into form is somewhat of a win for a Tigers rotation that has lost starters Tarik Skubal, Justin Verlander, Troy Melton, Jackson Jobe and Reese Olson since the start of spring training.
“I mean, obviously, we have a lot of guys on the [injured list],” said catcher Jake Rogers. “[Mize] just absolutely munching innings today was huge. It’s huge to have him back. He’s a big presence on this staff, and a really good right-handed arm for us.”
Tigers adjust Mize’s approach
Mize has become a bit of a strikeout artist this season, coming into the game averaging a career-high 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. But the veteran settled into a strategy that leveraged Toronto’s swing-early approach by inducing soft contact, which kept his strikeout total relatively low but also lengthened his outing.
“They don’t strike out a lot, they don’t walk a lot, they’re gonna put the ball in play. And so just knowing that, there’s no need for long counts to necessarily get 10 strikeouts today,” he said. “We tried to get in the zone early just to hopefully play into their gameplan in our favor, and it worked that way for the most part.”
Mize’s ability to put in a winning effort either with strikeouts or pitching to contact makes him a versatile and valuable part of this team’s rotation. And if the Tigers are going to bounce back from their early funk, they’ll need all the good starts they can get. Mize showed that he can provide those outings when healthy.
“I thought he did a fantastic job of getting us deep in the game as a normal starter would, with no context that he was coming off the injured list,” said Hinch.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Casey Mize return a silver lining in Tigers 10-inning loss
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
