ANAHEIM, CA – Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch didn’t want to mess with it. There were too many issues stacking up.
So, Hinch pulled pitcher Casey Mize after he was hit on the left wrist (his glove hand) by a nasty comebacker in the bottom of the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, July 19.
But that wasn’t the only issue. Mize was also dealing with groin tightness.
“It sounds like the wrist is OK,” Hinch said after the Tigers lost, 3-2. “I know he wasn’t complaining a ton about it. We’ll get the groin checked out. See how he feels tomorrow. It’s hot. A lot of things working to make that decision.”
In the fourth inning, Angels right fielder Jo Adell hit a sharp grounder up the middle – it left his bat with a 108.8 mph exit velocity – and Mize caught it, trapping the ball against his body. He finished the play but appeared to injure his glove hand. He was immediately taken out of the game.
“He smoked it,” Mize said. “It got me just under my glove. Got me on the side of the hand, wrist, whatever. … That’s not anything I’m going to be concerned about. We got it evaluated. We’ll see how I wake up and feel tomorrow there. But as of right now, I feel good about that.”
But after the wrist scare, Hinch didn’t want to take any risks.
“Casey had a couple things going,” Hinch said. “He got hit in the wrist. Everybody could see that. He had a little bit of groin tightness, so there were multiple things going on. I needed to take him out of the game.”
Mize has been dealing with a groin issue since April.
“I would say precautionary would be a good word to describe it,” he said. “You know, similar area, but precautionary is a good way to describe the decision to come out of the game.”
Mize was pulled after throwing 3⅓ innings, giving up one earned run on five hits. He struck out five while walking one.
“He had to work really hard those first few innings,” Hinch said. “We were fairly thin on getting through the entire game on the pitching side, not wanting to use our entire ‘pen going into Chicago. But just trying to be smart to make sure that there was no issue.”
Despite the lingering groin issue, Mize entered Sunday with a 2.79 ERA, which ranked seventh in the American League and 18th in all of baseball among pitchers with at least 10 starts.
But he never looked comfortable on the mound at Angel Stadium, a mound that several Tigers pitchers had trouble adjusting to because, they said, it’s so big and different.
“It is a steeper mound,” Mize said. “So finding a little bit of command just kind of took me longer to foot strike. Had some yanks a little bit. Wasn’t executing my best, and then gave up some hits just on some bad execution. Even if they weren’t hit hard, I feel like it was just lack of execution that led to some of those. Still had plenty of swing and miss to be able to get out of some of those scenarios when I needed to. It’s just you know frustrating how to put myself there in the first place.”
All of that combined – the groin, the wrist and several stressful innings – made the decision easy for Hinch.
“Casey had to work hard for three straight innings, so probably just a little bit of rust is what I saw,” Hinch said. “Just you know, struggling to put the ball where he wanted to and under a lot of stress from the get-go with the walks.”
After winning the series against the Angels, the Tigers (46-53) will now head to Chicago for a three-game series against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, beginning Monday (8:05 p.m., Detroit SportsNet). The loss in Anaheim dropped the Tigers to 6½ games back in the American League Central and 4½ back in the AL wild-card chase (behind the Boston Red Sox, who have 13 in a row).
“Every game’s critical,” Hinch said. “We’ve been playing Game 7 for like two months, ever since May.”
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Casey Mize injury update: Multiple reasons for early exit for Tigers
Reporting by Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jeff Seidel, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
