Detroit – Casey Mize threw off the bullpen mound before Wednesday’s 9-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. He didn’t throw the full 60-feet, six inches. The catcher stood in front of the plate, cutting roughly five feet off the distance.
He threw 10 fastballs.
It doesn’t sound like much, does it? A Major League pitcher throwing 10, 55-foot fastballs. But when you are more than a year into the recovery and rehab process following both Tommy John surgery and back surgery, these new challenges represent fresh progress.
“It’s been over a year,” said Mize, who had his elbow surgery on June 15 last year. “We got the first one down; about a hundred of these to go.”
Mize has been throwing five days a week on flat ground. Throwing off the slope represents the next hurdle, leading to full bullpen sessions and eventually to live competition.
“It’s nice for him because he’s had to do so much rehab and not a lot of baseball,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Pitchers will tell you they need to get off the mound a little bit to feel like a pitcher again. It’s one step of many steps he’s having to take. But I know he was looking forward to it.”
There are mental hurdles that players have to pass during this tedious process, too. Mize said throwing off the slope was one of those.
“Everything felt good,” he said. “Everything felt normal. Now we keep progressing toward more pitches and then we back the catcher up and we throw in the off-speed stuff and we throw in the breaking stuff. It’s just climbing the ladder and adding all these new challenges and steps.
“Today was another rung on that ladder.”
Mize, as he has with the weight-room and monotonous drill work, is attacking this next step with a competitive fire.
“I haven’t been timid,” he said. “When we get to these new challenges, I’m not timid. I wasn’t overdoing it. That won’t be an issue. But I don’t want to underdo it. That’s my most important thing. This thing (pointing to his elbow) is fixed. The reason I had the surgery was to fix this.
“’It’s fixed, you’re fine.’ That’s the advice I’ve gotten from guys. Whenever you get a new challenge, take it head-on. Don’t ease into it. Just keep proving it to yourself that you’re good.”
Mize’s goal is to maximize every step on the ladder. He isn’t trying to rush the process. He’s knows that’s a futile endeavor.
“They made it pretty clear to me that no matter how well it goes, we’re not deviating off the plan,” he said. “That’s the doctors’ orders. That’s not coming from the Tigers. The doctors have this all planned out.”
Clean, hard slide
In Minnesota over the weekend, Tigers’ second baseman Nick Maton was taken out on a hard slide by Twins’ Alex Kirilloff, breaking up a double-play chance. There was no beef from the Tigers, no video challenge.
“That’s how we teach it,” Hinch said.
It almost went the other way Wednesday in the Tigers’ 9-4 win over the Royals. Jake Marisnick went in hard on second baseman Samad Taylor in the bottom of the eighth and broke up a potential inning-ending double-play.
The Royals challenged and the officials in New York deliberated a long time.
“I don’t love long reviews,” Hinch said. “It ices everybody in the game. I mean, things come to a dead stop. Also don’t love it because it doesn’t feel like it goes in your favor the longer they look at it.”
This one did. The call on the field was upheld. A run scored on the play and the Tigers ended up scoring two more before the inning ended.
“Jake went in hard,” Hinch said. “I thought the second baseman initiated the contact, similar to what Maton did. Jake said something interesting when he came back in. He said he had two choices, he could either roll and protect his face from an elbow of the ball, or he can take it right in the face.”
Marisnick said the umpire at second base, Will Little, explained to him that there was no way to judge whether the momentum of the slide took him off the base at second or if he was just trying to roll away and protect himself.
“In terms of the spirit of the rule, there was nothing egregious about the slide,” Hinch said. “I understand why they challenged but I’m not sure any of us fully, fully understand the rule even after all these years. I was happy it went in our favor.
“But I totally get it on it’s kind of a new-age question on what’s right and what’s wrong.”
Skubal nicked
Tarik Skubal’s rehab start at Toledo didn’t go quite as smooth as his last one. He actually got to throw all of his pitches in the game. In his previous start against Lehigh Valley, he finished his work in the bullpen.
In a matinee start at Toledo Wednesday, Skubal threw 52 pitches (32 strikes) in 2.2 innings against St. Paul. He struck out four, walked a batter and gave up a two-run home run to left-handed hitting Andrew Stevenson on his final pitch of the outing.
The game was stopped at one point and the trainers checked on Skubal’s hand. Apparently he was dealing with a blister.
Around the horn
…Javier Baez’ two-strike, line-drive, RBI single to left in the third inning was the 1,000th hit of his career. “He’s gotten a lot of them just like that,” Hinch said. “But I told him after, only 2,118 behind Miggy (Cabrera). Keep working.”
Twitter: @cmccosky