NEW YORK – Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch always wants the focus to be on his team.
But that wasn’t going to happen on this night at Yankee Stadium. Even though his team played great.
The Tigers beat the New York Yankees, 7-3, on Monday, June 29, and it was significant for Hinch because he became the 68th manager in MLB history to reach 1,000 wins in his career.
Fittingly, this win embodied Hinch’s mantras: Forget about yesterday (the Tigers had lost five of six), focus on today, string together good at-bats and throw strikes.
That’s exactly what the Tigers (36-49) did against the Yankees (48-36), earning a complete team win: starting pitcher Casey Mize was brilliant (10 strikeouts and no walks in seven scoreless innings) and Tigers hitters were able to string together a series of productive at-bats – passing the baton, as Hinch says, with 11 hits while taking advantage of a pair of New York errors.
Hinch becomes only the fifth Tigers manager to reach 1,000 wins, joining Hughie Jennings (1907-20), Chuck Dressen (1963-66), Ralph Houk (1974-78) and Sparky Anderson (1979-95). Hinch had 89 wins with Arizona (2009-10), 491 wins with Houston (2015-19) and 430 wins with Detroit (2021-present).
At the plate: Darn near everybody contributed
What a difference a week makes.
Yankees lefty Ryan Weather dominated the Tigers on June 24, allowing just one earned run in six innings, striking out six and walking just two in a 4-2 win at Comerica Park.
But the Tigers came out sizzling hot against him on Monday.
Or in the Tao of Hinch: Forget about the past and just focus on today.
The Tigers jumped out to a 5-0 second-inning lead off seven hits, and most of the lineup contributed. Seven players either scored or had an RBI in the first two innings.
It got so bad that Yankees fans started booing, and Weathers was yanked without completing the second inning.
Several Tigers had fantastic games at the plate.
Kevin McGonigle seemed to do a little bit of everything. He drove in two runs, scored once and got on base three times with two hits and a walk.
Dillon Dingler hit the ball hard, getting a double and hitting a ball to the wall that was dropped for an error. He scored two runs and added an RBI.
And Hao-Yu Lee went 2-for-4 and knocked in two runs.
To make this offensive explosion even more impressive for the Tigers, they did all of that without Riley Greene, who received his first full day off of the season, in Game 85.
On the mound: Casey Mize dominant
The Tigers bullpen came into this series with a taxed bullpen.
But Hinch had a plan on how to fix that.
“Casey Mize, Casey Mize and Casey Mize!” Hinch said before the game.
And that’s exactly what they got. A tremendous, efficient and dominating start by Mize, who gave up just one hit over seven innings, while recording 10 strikeouts.
He didn’t give up that hit until the third inning and he didn’t face much pressure or high stress, getting through four innings on just 49 pitches, as the Tigers held a 7-0 lead. That efficiency was important, allowing him to get deep into the game, and saving the bullpen for the rest of this series.
Then, he seemed to get better as the game went on, striking out the side to finish the sixth inning.
Hinch took out Mize after the seventh inning – and just 88 pitches – and went to left-hander Drew Sommers, who struggled. He gave up a walk, double and homer to shrink the Tigers’ lead to 7-3.
Drew Anderson pitched the ninth, and it was an easy one (strikeout), two (groundout), three (line out).
Next up: A great pitching matchup
The Tigers and Yankees will play the second game of this series on Tuesday (7:05 p.m., Detroit SportsNet) in what will be a good old-fashioned battle of studs.
Left-hander Tarik Skubal, the reigning two-time American League Cy Young Award winner, will start for the Tigers.
And Cam Schlittler, who is the AL Cy Young favorite, will start for the Yankees. The 25-year-old has a 8-4 record with a 1.62 ERA.
“He’s the best pitcher in the American League right now,” Skubal said. “To do it at his age, you know, I don’t know how old he is, but he’s young in terms of service in this game. Seeing his stuff, it’s pretty dynamic and electric. He throws a ton of strikes, a lot of high velocity stuff. … He’s a pretty impressive player at that stage in his career.”
Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Casey Mize gem delivers Tigers victory, A.J Hinch win milestone
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
