Arlington, Texas — You know Mason Englert had this particular road trip circled since the day he broke camp with the Tigers.
He was a high school star at Forney High School — about 25 miles west of Dallas — where he broke the state record for consecutive scoreless innings, 55.1, a record that was held by former phenom David Clyde.
Wouldn’t you know, Englert was in the dugout Tuesday night when the Rangers paid tribute to Clyde in a pre-game ceremony. The two talked, for the first time ever, before the game.
“This is great,” Englert said. “I’m staying at home for a couple of days with my family. Sleeping in my old bed. It’s nice.”
Englert was drafted by the Rangers in the fourth round in 2018, but they left him unprotected in the 2022 Rule 5 draft, which is how he ended up making the jump from Double-A to the big leagues with the Tigers this season.
“We call it the revenge tour,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch joked after the Tigers’ 7-2 win over the Rangers Monday night, a game in which former Ranger Andy Ibanez hit a three-run homer and Englert pitched 2.1 innings and earned his third win of the season.
Just 10 days ago, the Tigers were concerned that Englert might have to go on the injured list. He grinded through 2.2 innings at Minnesota and even earned the win, but the velocity on his four-seam fastball was down alarmingly to 88 mph. He didn’t have the same sharpness on his secondary pitches, either.
The concern was he was either dealing with an injury or a tired arm.
Turned out, it was neither. What he was dealing with, mostly, were growing pains from learning how to be a high-volume reliever at the highest level of the game.
“I felt really good, health-wise,” he said. “I was just trying to learn what it’s like to be a reliever.”
He’d been a starting pitcher coming up in the Rangers’ system. He was part of a six-man rotation, pitching every seventh day. He’d never made more than 24 appearances in either of his two full minor-league seasons.
He’s pitched in 25 games already this season — and all but six have been multiple innings. It’s a completely different type of wear-and-tear.
“I’m working with a lot of smart people,” he said. “I’m learning how to throw between outings, how to manage the workload. How to manage everything. It’s just totally different. I’m having to feel out what’s better or worse for the role I’m in right now.”
Turns out, he’d been doing it wrong. Doing less isn’t necessarily best, at least not in his case.
Let him explain: “I think I was initially underdoing my workload between outings,” he said. “Because my mindset was, if I’m pitching every three or four days, I need to be fresh. So, I was intentionally underdoing it. And at first, it made me feel fresh.”
His four-seam fastball was hitting 94 mph in spring training, and it was sitting between 92 and 93 mph for the first month or so. But, he’s not a power pitcher. The velocity is important only as it relates to his dynamic secondary pitches, specifically his changeup and slider.
When the fastball velocity decreased, so did the command and effectiveness of his secondary pitches.
“What started happening was, all of a sudden, I wasn’t throwing with fast hand speed often enough to have coordination at maximum speed,” Englert said. “My feel started to get worse. That was the first thing to go. The catcher would set up here and usually, when I let it rip, it’s going to be close.
“But, I was spraying the ball. I never experienced that.”
The next thing that happened was the velocity dip.
“It started to tick down because my overall fitness level started to decrease,” he said. “People think that if the velo is down, you’ve got to step off. In my case, the velo was down because I was stepping off and my fitness level went down.”
“I’m learning a bunch.”
The Tigers essentially kept Englert out of games for a week and let him rebuild his fitness level. He threw 1.2 scoreless innings against the Twins last week with three strikeouts and no walks. Monday night, he provided 2.1 innings with four strikeouts; the only blemish was a solo homer by Adolis Garcia.
He threw 17 changeups and got four swinging strikes on seven swings. He threw 14 four-seamers with an average velocity of 91.4 mph, hitting 95 mph. He also threw 11 sliders.
“I feel physically in a good spot,” he said. “Talking to (assistant pitching coach) Robin Lund, it’s like, you can’t know these things until you actually pitch through it. This is something I’ve never experienced. You learn and you adjust.”
Tigers at Rangers
First pitch: 8:05 p.m., Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit/97.1
Scouting report:
LHP Joey Wentz (1-8, 6.72), Tigers: He’s limited hitters to a .146 average with 17 strikeouts and seven walks in his last three starts, covering 15.1 innings. And he pitched well against the Rangers in Detroit on May 31, allowing a run with five strikeouts in 4.1 innings. Right-handed hitters are still doing a disproportionate amount of damage against him: .290/.349/.519 slugging 12 of the 14 homers he’s allowed.
RHP Dane Dunning (6-1, 2.76), Rangers: The Tigers made him work at Comerica Park back on May 31. He threw 98 pitches and lasted five innings, tagged for three runs and seven hits. He’s thrown two quality starts since against the Blue Jays and Yankees (four runs total in 13 innings). Opponents are hitting .190 against both his cutter and slider, which he throws off a 90-91mph sinker.
Twitter: @cmccosky