I don’t know where you are as you read this, but around the Great Lakes, the Labo(u)r Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer. A few leaves are starting to turn colour, there’s a pleasant coolness in the air from time to time, and the cicadas are in full throat. Or buzz. Or whatever they’re doing, what am I, an entomologist?
At any rate, it’s been quite a while since there’s been a buzz by anything other than cicadas around Comerica Park as September approaches, but here we are: the Tigers are actually in the hunt for a Wild Card. They didn’t do their playoff chances any favours on Friday night, however, as they dropped the first game of a three-game weekend series 7-5 in 10 innings. It’s not going to get any easier from here on out, either.
The worst-kept secret in Detroit, despite “TBA” being listed as Friday night’s starter for most of the day, was that Casey Mize was making his return to the majors. He last made a start for the Tigers on June 30 and spent most of the summer recovering from hamstring problems; this, of course, after missing half of 2022 and all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. His last full season was 2021, which stings more than a little. At any rate, after a few tune-up starts in Toledo, it was back to the Land of the Tall Buildings for Mize.
Facing Mize was Tanner Houck, who has bounced back nicely from a nightmarish 2023 in which nothing quite seemed to go right. So far this year he’s excelled at keeping the ball in the yard, leading the league in fewest home runs per nine innings. He’s also brought his walk rate down by a full point (3.5/9 IP down to 2.5 this year), and has upped his ground-ball percentage which was already high; coming into tonight, 54.9% of balls were hit on the ground, compared with a league-average 42.5%.
The Red Sox got on the board in the first: Jarren Duran hit a double on the first pitch, took third on a groundout, and scored on another groundout for a 1-0 lead. Boston added to that in the third, scratching out another run with a single, double and sacrifice fly for a 2-0 score, and also in the fourth via a walk, stolen base and double to make the score 3-0.
Mize was looking okay in his first start back, relying on his standard mix of sliders, four-seam fastballs and knuckle-curve. His splitter was particularly effective, against both lefties and righties. Seeing as how it’d been exactly two months since his last major-league start, there was bound to be a little rust he’d have to knock off.
The Tigers finally got their first base hit in the fifth with the red-hot Zach McKinstry poking a single through to right to lead things off. A liner and a fly ball saw McKinstry still standing on first with two outs, but Parker Meadows then hit a single to right. McKinstry tried to advance all the way to third but a great relay throw nailed him for the final out of the inning.
Connor Wong added to the visitors’ lead in the sixth with a solo home run to left for a 4-0 tally. Mize would finish the inning, and that’d be the end of his night: 6 innings, 6 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts. If he hadn’t given up the home run that line would’ve looked mighty good, but for his first outing back it wasn’t terrible, per se. We’ll see how he progresses.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth Matt Vierling doubled to left; Kerry Carpenter followed with a walk to put two on. Alas, they were stranded there with a strikeout and a lineout and the Tigers remained off the scoreboard.
Brenan Hanifee and Sean Guenther each logged an uneventful inning of relief, which was nice.
In the eighth — of course! — pinch-hitter Andy Ibáñez drew a leadoff walk and Vierling followed with a single. Then Kerry Carpenter jumped all over a first-pitch sinker and took it out to left field to narrow the gap to 4-3.
That was where the scoring in the inning would end, though, as Jace Jung grounded out and Spencer Torkelson struck out.
Shelby Miller came on for the ninth to hold things down, as he set the visitors down 1-2-3. AJ Hinch should’ve cashed-out at that point with Miller, as you’ll see in a minute — but at least the Tigers made it exciting.
The veteran Kenley Jansen was summoned to lock down the victory for the visitors, and McKinstry continued his sizzling hitting with a leadoff single to right, his third hit of the night. He stole second, and with one out Jake Rogers doubled to score McKinstry and tie the game at 4.
Ibáñez lined out to centre and Rogers advanced to third, but Riley Greene struck out swinging on a pitch near his shoulders to strand the runner.
Miller carried on into the tenth: with one out, Ceddanne Rafaela clubbed a two-run home run to right and Boston was up 6-4 just like that. (Notably, it was the third straight four-seamer in the at-bat which was around the top of the strike zone; you need to change that eye level.) Miller left, Tyler Holton came in, and he didn’t fare much better, surrendering a long, first-pitch home run to Duran to make it 7-4. Holton eventually got out of the inning, but the damage had been done.
In the bottom of the tenth a Vierling flyout pushed Greene, in the role of Manfred Man, up to third base. Carpenter grounded out, scoring Greene inconsequentially, and Jace Jung struck out to end the game. At least they made it interesting, though, right? Ah well, back to .500 went the Tigers.
Box Score: Red Sox 7, Tigers 5
Notes and Observations
- Since his recall from Toledo, coming into tonight’s game Spencer Torkelson has slashed .311/.380/.622 for an OPS of 1.002 (12 games, 50 plate appearances). He was 14-for-45, and that 14 included three doubles, a triple, and three home runs.
- In those dozen games he had a four-hit game, a three-hit game, and a pair of two-hit games. I’ll take that, thank you.
- Ernest Rutherford was born on this day in 1871. He’s probably most well-known for his interpretation of experiments showing evidence for, and the properties of, atomic nuclei. He was later buried in Westminster Abbey near Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, who are two pretty fine neighbours if you ask me.