St. Petersburg, Fla. — Mason Englert was flipping through the various garments in his locker inside the visitor’s clubhouse at Tropicana Field Thursday, searching for a pair of workout shorts. He’d just made his MLB debut and needed to burn off some excess adrenaline.
He finally gave up the search.
“I guess I can just wear these,” he said, pointing to the shorts he wore under his uniform.
A year ago at this time, the right-handed pitcher was in North Carolina getting ready to start the season with the High-A Hickory Crawdads. He’s 23 years old and because the Tigers plucked him from the Rangers in the Rule 5 draft this winter, he barely pitched in Double-A and skipped Triple-A altogether.
So to be on the mound inside the Trop in the eighth inning against the Rays in a still close game Thursday, with his parents and sister in the stands, well, it was pretty heady stuff.
“I thought my mind was pretty calm, but I could tell there was extra adrenaline in my body,” he said.
Given what Englert has already lived through in his young life, playing a game he’s played and played extremely well his entire life wasn’t likely to rattle him. This is a guy who, as part of his training regimen, puts himself in extreme environments — like taking a dip in the Grand River in the dead of winter.
“Just stay really calm,” he said in an interview last December. “It’s more taking an observant view of the situation and that makes it easier to decide how to get out of it.”
His first exposure to pitching in the big leagues Thursday was at the other extreme. He was thrown into the fire, facing the always dangerous Wander Franco right out of the gate.
And yet, Englert got quickly ahead in the count 0-2, showing him a 93-mph four-seam fastball and then landing a curveball.
“I made some better pitches early to get ahead and force some pressure,” he said.
But he let Franco back in the count by missing with two changeups. Franco fouled off a nasty slider that Englert painted on the outside corner and then laid off an elevated four-seamer at the top of the zone to run the count full.
Franco extended the at-bat to nine pitches by fouling off a slider that was inside and a changeup that was low and out of the strike zone. On the ninth pitch, Englert wanted to elevate his four-seamer again.
“That last fastball, I didn’t have the normal feeling with it,” Englert said. “I was a little amped up and I pulled it over the middle instead of putting it up and away. And he did what he did.”
Franco hit it 402 feet over the wall in left center.
“I hope that doesn’t change his proud feeling of getting to the big leagues and reaching this time,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Obviously we want him to keep the ball in the ballpark, but he can take away the fact that he’s made it. He’s one of very few people in the world that’s pitched at this level.
“He should be very comfortable knowing that he’s earned this opportunity. I was glad he could get this one out of the way. He was going to anticipate this forever if we hadn’t got him in the game, especially having the off day Friday. Now he can settle in and know he belongs here.”
Englert slapped his glove almost the minute he finished his delivery on that final pitch to Franco. But that’s all the emotion he showed.
“I was like, ‘Well, he’s a good hitter, I made a mistake, let’s get to the next one,’” he said. “Just keep going.”
Englert did just that, dispatching the next three hitters — Isaac Paredes, Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley — in 13 pitches.
“The first time is always a little extra stimulation, I guess,” Englert said. “I’m excited to get back out there and be a little calmer and go do my thing with a quiet mind, with things going a little less fast.”
A few minutes later, after the reporters dispersed, Englert poked his head out of the clubhouse door to make sure the coast was clear. Then he scampered, essentially in his underwear, across the hall to the weight room before he could close the book on his big-league debut.
Tigers at Rays
First pitch: 4:10 p.m. Saturday, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla.
TV/radio: BSD/97.1
SCOUTING REPORT
RHP Spencer Turnbull, Tigers: This will his first official big-league start in nearly 20 months, since June 4, 2021. He’s battled back from Tommy John surgery and performed this spring like he’d never been gone. He had 12 strikeouts and just two walks in 12 spring innings. He’s not likely to pitch much more than five innings, though. The Tigers are going to govern his workload, especially early in the season.
RHP Zach Eflin, Rays: The former Phillie, a product of Hagerty High School (Oviedo, Fla.), same as Tigers’ Riley Greene, brings a six-pitch mix and one of the better sliders in the game. He got a 43.5% whiff rate with his last season. The Rays signed him to the highest free agent contract in their history this offseason, $40 million for three years.
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky