Detroit Tigers rookie Matt Manning pulled back and unleashed the hardest pitch of his MLB career.
97.6 mph.
His fastball velocity maxed out in the sixth inning of Thursday’s 6-4 win, going through the Baltimore Orioles’ lineup for the third time. Since arriving for his MLB debut on June 17, Manning’s speed has been questioned throughout his 10 starts. The 6-foot-6 right-hander often clocked 97 mph in the minors, only to average 93-94 mph in the big leagues.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch kept saying not to worry. Speed means nothing if you can’t throw strikes, weaponize secondary pitches and get outs. “This level is going to have to show him that he can’t pitch the way he’s always pitched,” Hinch said June 23, after Manning’s Comerica Park debut.
But Manning admitted he enjoyed seeing a number that rounds up to 98.
“It’s not the key to everything, but it feels good,” Manning said Thursday. “I always knew I had it in there.”
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He thanked pitching coach Chris Fetter, explaining they focused on getting his front foot to the ground before he rotates, rather than rolling through his throwing motion.
“Me and Fett have been working hard on making my delivery more violent, finding where I could get more power from,” Manning said. “I’ve just been putting a lot of work in with him to try to increase it, and I was able to get a couple jumps up today.”
Manning held the Orioles to three runs on eight hits. He did not allow a walk for the second straight outing and struck out two batters. Manning threw 51 fastballs, combining his recently developed two-seamer (39) and familiar four-seamer (12). These averaged 94.4 mph.
Of his 83 pitches, 60 went for strikes.
The adjustment to throw harder doesn’t mean he was perfect. But the first run he allowed came on a defensive mistake, as the Tigers failed to execute what should have been an easy rundown with two outs in the first inning. Manning turned and threw to second base, trying to catch Anthony Santander stealing.
Shortstop Zack Short caught the ball and, without attacking Santander to apply pressure, threw to first baseman Renato Nunez. Nunez fired home to catcher Grayson Greiner, but his throw was too late for speedy Cedric Mullins.
“There’s different ways to defend that play,” Hinch said. “We’ve got to get the runner turned and headed with some momentum to first base. He was able to hang out in the middle part. I think he thought (first baseman Renato) Nunez was going to close the gap a little bit. Regardless, it’s about the runner and making him create momentum, where it’s a catch and a tag.
“And there’s no rush. At the end of the play, if we end up at first and third, you might look silly that you gave up an out, but you’re still in the situation that you were with an 0-2 count. We played the game a little too fast there, and we learned a valuable lesson there by the way they ran the bases.”
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Hinch appreciated the way Manning kept his cool.
“It’s easy to implode there and give up a couple more hits after that and let the inning get to you,” Hinch said. “The same thing goes when he gives up the solo homer later in the game.”
The other two runs were home runs, both from DJ Stewart.
For the first homer, Manning tossed him a slider and back-to-back changeups in the fourth inning. He blasted the second changeup to right-center field. For the second homer, Manning chose to throw Stewart four consecutive two-seam fastballs: 94.5 mph, 97.2 mph, 97.6 mph and 97.5 mph. This time, he hit the ball out to center field with two outs in the sixth.
“I wasn’t going to throw anything else to DJ Stewart other than fastballs, so that’s what happened,” Manning said. “I was OK with the result.”
Maikel Franco followed with a first-pitch single, sending Fetter to the mound for a visit. The next batter, Jorge Mato, was called out on strikes on a 96.2 mph two-seamer to conclude Manning’s outing.
“I thought he was really good for a couple reasons,” Hinch said. “I think his stuff ticked up as he’s gotten more comfortable. I want to urge all of us to allow him to develop at this level and learn and grow. … His maturity comes with some of the pitches, but a lot of it is how he’s handling the in-game situations and in-game adjustments. He’s calm in the dugout. There’s a lot to like with what he’s doing.”
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Manning’s improved start came after getting shelled for six runs on 10 hits over four innings Aug. 6 against Cleveland at Progressive Field. It was his second “blow-up performance,” as Hinch described, this season. Cleveland also rocked him June 28, once again on the road, for nine runs on nine hits over 3⅔ innings.
The overall numbers aren’t great: 6.10 ERA, 13 walks and 25 strikeouts across 48⅔ innings. Although Manning has plenty to learn, the Tigers keep seeing positive signs in spurts. Each setback seems to bring a few steps forward.
“He can run the ball in on righties and run the ball away from lefties if we ever asked him to,” Hinch said. “We don’t do that a lot nowadays, but the ability to move the ball in to righties is going to be really key for him. And then he starts ticking up to 95, 96, I think I saw 98 today. Those are all difficult matchups for hitters.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.