Detroit — There were a couple of nerdy baseball plays in the Tigers’ 4-3 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday night. And what is a full life without the opportunity to dive into some nerdy baseball plays.
Right?
Yankees’ base runners were in a frisky mood against Casey Mize right from the jump.
Jasson Dominguez, not a base-stealer by nature, swiped third base with one out in the first inning. He could’ve scored, too, had he noticed the throw from Dillon Dingler tipped off Kevin McGonigle’s glove.
In the third inning, Anthony Volpe stole second.
This is part of the Yankees’ DNA. They are second in the big leagues with 83 stolen bases. The Tigers and Mize, who is generally excellent at controlling the running game (only six attempts before Tuesday), were well-aware of this.
“We game-planned for it,” Mize said. “I tried to mix up my times (to the plate) as much as I could. I tried to be aware of my holds, trying to be quick at times, trying to hold it to one second (on the pitch clock) at times.”
Volpe tried his luck again in the fifth, but Dingler fired a perfect strike right to the bag to get him.
But here’s the nerdy part.
The Yankees scored their first run in the fourth inning, perhaps at least partially because of Mize’s laser focus on stopping the run game.
With one out, Spencer Jones singled, sending Jazz Chisholm, Jr., to third. Both are fast runners. With Jose Caballero, a double-play candidate, at the plate, Mize threw over to first base twice to hold Jones.
Keeping Jones close at first keeps the double play in order. But throwing over twice is akin to giving him a green light to go. If Mize throws over a third time and doesn’t pick him off, it’s a balk.
Sure enough, Jones broke for second base on a pitch that Caballero hit to McGonigle on one hop at third base. Can’t say for sure the Tigers would’ve turned an inning-ending double play, but Jones running on the pitch made it a non-starter.
Chisholm scored on the 5-3 putout.
“The disengagement thing, we need to use them,” Mize said. “Everyone is afraid to use two but I’m not really scared of that. I’m OK with it. Because what happens normally, you pick over the first time and the runners know you’re not going to pick over again and they steal immediately.”
That’s precisely what Volpe did on both his attempts. Sometimes you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
“It’s not free,” manager AJ Hinch said about the two disengagements to Jones. “We have to defend everything at that point. But it’s not free. He still has to earn the stolen base but it gave them some boldness. We are going to pick over three times in a row one of these days. Not with a runner at third, but just to get it on the scouting report. Just to let them know we’re going to pick over at any time.
“We play these guys again in five days. Tell Boonie (Yankees manager Aaron Boone) we’re going to pick over three times in a row.”
The second nerdy play happened in the seventh inning. With one out and Ben Malgeri at first base, McGonigle hit a sinking liner to right field. Yankees’ right fielder Dominguez got a late break on it but managed to catch it just as or just before the ball hit the grass.
Umpires immediately ruled it a catch and Hinch quickly asked for the play to be reviewed. And even in stop-action, it was impossible to tell if Dominguez got his glove completely under the ball.
“I don’t know how much resolution you have to have to see it touch a blade of grass,” he said afterward. “You’re unlucky either way. Whatever it was called was going to stand.”
That’s exactly what happened, the call stood and it was a 9-3 double play. The curiosity, though, and what Hinch made sure to explain to McGonigle afterward, is what happens if that’s ruled a trap.
McGonigle hadn’t reached first base when Malgeri was doubled off. Would it have been a 9-3 putout?
“(The umpire) said out right away,” said McGonigle on why he stopped. “It was a weird play. I wasn’t able to get to first with Malgeri coming back and (Yankees first baseball Paul) Goldschmidt coming toward first base.”
Hinch talked to crew chief Alan Porter between innings to get a clarification.
“I needed to talk to Kevin about not getting to first base,” Hinch said. “If it had been ruled a no-catch, I didn’t know what they would’ve done. They threw to first and actually beat Kevin to the base.”
The rule states that, in that situation, if the call was overturned and it was ruled a trap, McGonigle would have been awarded first base on the dead ball, with Malgeri placed at second.
“Just an unusual play,” Hinch said. “If the ball is trapped, the play is dead. But Malgeri was in no-man’s land and Kevin stopped.”
If that situation ever happens again, it’s a good bet that both runners will be standing next to each other at first base.
One other play from Tuesday night deserves a second look.
In what ended up being a one-run loss, Riley Greene was thrown out at the plate with two outs in the fourth inning trying to score from second on a hard-hit single to medium depth left field. The Tigers had a 2-0 lead at the time.
Couple of factors: There were two outs and lefty-swinging Zach McKinstry was due up. He’d already singled off Yankees’ lefty starter Carlos Rodon, but it’s still a tough matchup, for any lefty.
Also, the left fielder in this instance was Cody Bellinger, whose arm strength (91.4 mph) ranks in the top 92nd percentile in baseball.
Hao-Yu Lee’s base hit left his bat at 106.9 mph and went 235 feet into left field. Bellinger fielded it on the charge and had the ball as Greene was rounding third. Third-base coach Joey Cora waved him home.
“It was a well-executed play,” Hinch said. “If it’s off a little, we have a good chance to score there.”
Bellinger’s throw was on the first-base side of the plate, but catcher Austin Wells had plenty of time to secure it and get across to tag Greene.
“We’re going to be aggressive,” Hinch said. “But we’re going to look at all parts of that play to see if we could’ve done it a little better.”
This is the tradeoff for the Tigers. It has been for the last three seasons. They are going to be aggressive, which means they are going incur some outs on the bases. But you are also going to be among the league leaders in taking extra bases, which the Tigers are and have been.
They have had 10 runners thrown out at the plate. But they also have a 53% success rate in taking extra bases (going first to third on a single, second to home on a single, first to home on a double).
The league average is 42%.
The Tigers aren’t built to play station-to-station and wait for home runs. Plays like that one Tuesday are part of the cost of playing that brand of ball.
On deck: Houston Astros
Series: Four games at Comerica Park, Detroit
First pitch: Thursday-Friday — 6:40 p.m.; Saturday — 1:10 p.m.; Sunday — 1:40 p.m.
TV/radio: All four games on Detroit Sports Net/97.1 FM
Probables: Thursday — RHP Spencer Arrighetti (7-3, 3.13) vs. RHP Troy Melton (4-0, 2.56); Friday — RHP Kai-Wei Teng (4-6, 4.03) vs. RHP Keider Montero (3-5, 3.68); Saturday — RHP Hunter Brown (1-0, 1.40) vs. LHP Framber Valdez (4-5, 3.91); Sunday — RHP Peter Lambert (6-4, 3.28) vs. RHP Jack Flaherty (1-8, 5.35).
*Astros probables aren’t official.
Scouting report
Arrighetti, Astros: He’s wobbled a bit in June, allowing 17 earned runs in 22 innings. The Guardians got him for six runs, three home runs in six innings last time out. His money pitch is a 2,800-rpm slow curveball. Opponents are hitting .145 off it with a 39.9% whiff rate. He throws it off a 92-mph four-seam (with 7-4 extension). He also has a sweeper, sinker, changeup and cutter. His 30.8% hard-hit rate is among the softest in baseball.
Melton, Tigers: He’s kept opponents to two runs or less in four of his five starts this season and his last was a beauty. He gave up a lead-off homer to start the game and didn’t allow another hit over six innings. He’s allowed just nine runs this season, six on home runs. Five of the six homers have been hit by lefties, who otherwise are 6 for 67 against him with 13 strikeouts. Stange all-or-nothing component going on there.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Nerding out on some oddball plays from Tigers’ 4-3 loss to Yankees
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
