Lakeland, Fla. — There was a triple play. One Meadows brother homered on the first pitch he saw and the other Meadows brother swears the ball he launched over the Margaritaville Porch in right field two innings later was fair, though the umpires disagreed. There were 12 hits in the game. Thirty-seven position players and 13 pitchers were used.
Third baseman Andre Lipcius blasted a two-run home run onto the left-center field berm in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Tigers a 4-2 win in the Grapefruit League opener at Joker Marchant Stadium Saturday.
And the whole affair was done in 2:17. The pitch clock works. There was only one violation, that by Tigers’ lefty Zach Logue.
“That was a quick game with a clock or without a clock,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “The first thing you notice is the dead time between at-bats and in-between pitches goes away. I didn’t feel like the action was that much faster, but the time around it was.”
It was the Meadows brothers’ show, though.
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Younger brother Parker, with his parents in the stands having hastily drove down from their home in Georgia when they heard their sons were both in the starting lineup, led off the third inning and shellacked a first-pitch fastball from Phillies right-hander Erich Uelman. The ball landed in the Tigers bullpen beyond the right field fence.
“My eyes did light up,” he said. “I was waiting on a fastball right there, first pitch, and he kind of grooved one. I got the bat out on it. Felt good.”
The good feelings kept coming. As he rounded third base, Parker saw his brother Austin barreling out of the dugout.
“I saw him running at me,” Parker said. “I thought he was going to tackle me.”
Austin wrapped him up in a bear hug right in front of the dugout.
“That was pretty special,” Parker said. “I’m definitely going to remember that the rest of my life.”
While Parker Meadows will likely spend the bulk of his season at Triple-A Toledo, Austin is expected to hit in the middle of the Tigers’ order and play right field. He brought the crowd to its feet in the fifth inning, hitting a moon shot down the line in right.
Brothers homering on the same day? Come on.
“That ball was fair,” Austin said as he walked past his brother’s media scrum.
“From the dugout it definitely looked fair,” Parker said. “That would’ve been something, huh? I told the ump, ‘You have to call that fair.’”
The umpire did not. Still, it was a magical day for the Meadows family.
“I just can’t imagine what it feels like to have a family member do that, with their parents in the stands,” Hinch said. “Parker will have something on Austin now.”
A NEW WRINKLE
Right-hander Garrett Hill, whose best path to making the Opening Day roster is in the bullpen, got the start and allowed just an infield hit and a walk in two innings.
The second hitter he faced was former Tiger Nick Castellanos and Hill won a six-pitch battle, getting a swing-and-miss on a 2-2 slider.
“That was good,” Hill said. “I just started working on that pitch – that gyro slider – two days ago in my bullpen. To pull that out against a batter of that caliber felt good. It’s just a little firmer, in the 84-86 mph range, have it look like a fastball and then drop at the last second.”
Hill’s four-seam fastball and sinker were sitting at 94.8 mph, which is 3 mph firmer than last season. He is also throwing his curve ball harder (81 as opposed to 78 last year). The firmness of the curveball had Statcast reading it as a knucklecurve.
MAKING AN IMPRESSION
Right-hander Mason Englert is in a fight to secure the roster spot the Tigers bestowed on him by taking him in the Rule 5 draft. Two scoreless, hitless innings with four strikeouts is a good way to do that.
“One of the big focuses for him if he wants to impress this group, if he wants to make the team, is he’s got to throw strikes,” Hinch said. “That was a display of throwing strikes. That was good to see.”
Englert struck out the side in the fifth inning throwing 10 pitches, nine of them strikes. He ended up throwing 20 pitches with 17 strikes in the two innings.
“I just tried to keep a quiet mind,” said Englert, who has been a starting pitcher through his young professional career but will have to make the Tigers roster as a bulk reliever. “My only goals are internal. I just like to let the mind do what it wants to do and relax.
“I wasn’t too focused (on throwing strikes). If you’re too overbearing about that it can be problematic.”
According to Statcast, which doesn’t have much of a base on Englert because he didn’t pitch above Double-A last season, had him throwing six different pitches. Not so, he said. His cutter-slider were read as separate pitches. But with a sinker (93 mph), four-seamer (93), cutter and changeup, he got seven swings and misses on 15 swings.
“I have to give (veteran catcher Andrew) Knapp a lot of credit,” Englert said. “We got on the same page quickly without even communicating before the game at all. He was giving me great location and setting up well.”
THREE FOR ONE
The Phillies had already scored two runs off Logue in the top of the seventh and had runners on first and second.
Leandro Pineda hit a hard ground ball up the middle. Tigers shortstop Jermaine Palacios fielded the ball behind the bag, stepped on second and threw to first for a fast double play. The runner on second, Nick Podkul, rounded the base too far and was out in a rundown.
Score the triple play 6-3-5-2.
“Yeah, we practice that,” Hinch joked.
AROUND THE HORN
…Three former Tigers played for the Phillies, whose A-team was hosting the Yankees in Clearwater Saturday. Castellanos, who was the designated hitter, went hitless in three at-bats. Kody Clemens, who was traded to the Phillies with Gregory Soto, flew out to the track in left and singled sharply. John Hicks also went 1 for 2.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter@cmccosky