Atlanta 2, Detroit 1: Early runs spell doom

The middle game of a three-game series in Atlanta saw the Tigers drop a quiet one 2-1 on Tuesday night. In the process, they lost their fourth series in a row and will be in salvage mode on Wednesday afternoon.

Making his fourteenth start of the season for the Tigers was Casey Mize. He’s had a rough go of it lately; in four starts from May 21 through June 8 (15 ⅓ IP), he gave up 30 hits, allowed 17 runs (14 earned), walked eight and struck out seven. He did turn it around in his previous start, a six-inning, four-hit, one-run outing against the Nationals, but nobody this year has accused Washington of being the second coming of the 1927 Yankees.

Saginaw Michigan’s own Spencer Schwellenbach made his fourth career start for Atlanta. He’s a 24-year-old, 6’1” (185 cm) right-hander who was mostly an infielder at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, started dabbling in pitching during the Covid layoff, recovered from Tommy John surgery for all of 2022 after being drafted in 2021, started this season at High-A Rome, made two starts at double-A, and here he is amongst the tall buildings. Quite a story.

Mize wasn’t fooling anyone in the first inning as a single, triple and single put the home team up 2-0 within the first three batters — and that was all Atlanta would get, or need, all night. Mize righted the ship and got out of further trouble, but the Tigers dug themselves a hole right out of the gate.

The bottom of the second didn’t start much better than the first: an errant throw by Gio Urshela and a bunt single put the first two batsmen aboard. But then a flyout to centre, a strikeout and a 13-pitch battle with Ozzie Albes, ending with another flyout to centre but featuring seven consecutive foul balls, ended the frame.

You had to wonder how long Mize could go, having to use 54 pitches to get through two innings; there wasn’t a lot of swing-and-miss in those pitches, either. Meanwhile, Schwellenbach was having a mighty boring time out there on the mound, throwing five or six different pitches and limiting hard contact of any kind. He’d end up striking out a career-high seven.

Mize settled down through the third and fourth, but after the fourth his pitch count was at 87, and he was pretty gassed. He was lifted for Beau Brieske to start the fifth, who had himself a nice 1-2-3 inning.

Riley Greene led off the top of the sixth with a triple of his own, and with one out Urshela poked a single through the left side to plate Greene and cut the lead to 2-1.

Brieske had a 1-2-3 sixth as well, and set down the first batter of the seventh before giving way to Andrew Chafin. After a few bumpy outings, the last time Chafin made an appearance he struck out the side, and this time he struck out the first two hitters he faced. He stuck around to get the first out of the eighth, then Will Vest took over and dispached the next two batters.

Atlanta’s mostly-lights-out closer Raisel Iglesias came on for the ninth and he was… well, darn it, he was lights-out.

The Tigers will try to avoid the sweep Wednesday afternoon.

Box score: Atlanta 2, Detroit 1

This one stings.

One of the greats has passed away.

Hope this isn’t a season-ender

I looked up “avulsion” and, according to the NIH, it’s “a failure of bone in which a bone fragment is pulled away from its main body by soft tissue that is attached to it.” Yikes.

Notes and Observances

• In seven games (30 PA, 27 AB) leading up tonight’s game, Mark Canha was batting .340, had 10 hits, including two doubles, and swiped a pair of bases. Mind you, his BAbip was a raging .435, so there’s been a fair amount of luck in that small sample size.
• Canha has an Instagram account in which he reviews various dishes, from the gourmet to the not-so-gourmet, as he travels around North America.
• The Tigers entered the game tonight four games under the .500 mark, which was the lowest of the season to that point. They dropped five games below tonight, as you might imagine.
• Spencer Schwellenbach’s name reminds me of the similarly-surnamed Kate Schellenbach, a drummer who was an original member of the Beastie Boys before they became famous, and was a founding member of Luscious Jackson.
• RIP as well to Noam Chomsky. Many years ago I watched the documentary version of the book he co-authored, Manufacturing Consent, and it fundamentally changed how I view the world. So if you meet me and wonder why I am the way I am, well, that’s a big part of it.
• On this day in 1812, the United States declared war on the United Kingdom, starting the War of 1812. Naturally, your neighbours to the north (or south, if you’re in Detroit) were sort-of part of the UK at the time, so we got dragged into it. We up here are rather fond of noting that British forces (including some proto-Canadians) sacked the US Capitol and burned the White House; this was retribution for the previous year’s burning of York (now Toronto). Who won? Nobody really knows, but I guess it was all in good fun. No hard feelings, eh?