After a tight tilt on Friday night that broke a losing streak, the Tigers looked to carry that momentum into a Saturday afternoon contest against the Marlins. Excellent work from both pitchers and a timely tater gave the Tigers a 6-1 victory and secured a series win.
Casey Mize made his third start of the year for the Tigers; his first, against the Diamondbacks, was very good (even though the Tigers eventually lost that game). His second, against the Twins? Not so much… but the less said about that series in Minnesota, the better. He’s striking guys out, though, which is a good sign.
Facing Mize and the Tigers today was Janson Junk; I gotta think that name’s Dutch. After bouncing back and forth between the majors and minors for four years, and with three teams, he finally found a home in the Marlins’ rotation last year. He doesn’t strike out everybody, but his walk and home run rates are exceptionally low, so he generally keeps his team in the game.
The Tigers jumped on Junk in the first: Kevin McGonigle led off with a double to right, and a Wenceel Pérez groundout pushed him up to third. Colt Keith then doubled to left to put the Tigers up 1-0, and after Dillon Dingler grounded out, Riley Greene singled to right to plate Keith for a 2-0 lead.
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In the second, Mize gave up a leadoff double to Otto Lopez, who advanced to third on a groundout. But Mize buckled down and got a strikeout and a foulout to Keith at third, and Lopez was stranded ninety feet (27.43 m) from home. The Marlins repeated themselves in the third, sort-of: leadoff single, stolen base, groundout got a runner to third with two outs. Mize then struck out Agustín Ramírez to end the inning, stranding another runner 90 feet (5.45 rods) from home.
In the bottom of the third McGonigle drew a leadoff walk and Dingler reached on catcher’s interference with two out; they advanced to second and third on a wild pitch with Greene at the plate. Greene battled and fouled-off pitch after pitch, and on the tenth pitch of the at-bat he crushed a waist-high fastball for a long home run to right-centre for a 5-0 lead; it was Greene’s first home run of the year.
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The Marlins got on the board in the fourth: Liam Hicks singled, Lopez doubled again, and a sacrifice fly scored Hicks for a 5-1 score. But with two outs and Lopez on third, Pauley fouled-out again, stranding Lopez 90 feet (136 links) from home.
In the top of the sixth Lopez reached on an error by McGonigle, and with two outs Connor Norby hit a ground-rule double to right that bounced into the stands, pushing Lopez to third. That was the end of Mize’s day, and Drew Anderson was brought in. Could the Tigers again strand Lopez 90 feet (15 fathoms) from home?
They could, and they did: a groundout to second base and Lopez was indeed left 288 Big Macs from home.
Anderson carried on into the seventh and sprinkled a walk in between three groundouts. But, before I forget, here’s Mize’s final line: 5 2/3 IP, 6 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts. I will take that every lovin’ day of the week.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth Greene drew a walk, stole second base, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a soft fly ball to centre by Spencer Torkelson for a 6-1 score. Something something small-ball something something.
Anderson was doing well, and he’s been a starter for years, so it was decided that he’d just carry on into the ninth. He walked Pauley with one out, but he struck out Heriberto Hernández on a high heater, and after an epic battle with CMU product Jakob Marsee that lasted fourteen pitches, Marsee hit a grounder to first to finally end the game and earn Anderson a 3 1/3-inning save. You gotta tip your cap to Marsee on that one, though.
Final: Tigers 6, Marlins 1
Now, that’s interesting.
Numbers and Such
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I know the Tigers lineup can be frustrating at times. But, for perspective: the average OPS in the American League coming into today’s action was .675, and the Tigers were .673. And it’s frustrating when people strike out, but the league average at this point was 123 whiffs, and the Tigers had 128. So, they’re pretty much the definition of average… which isn’t what we were hoping for, but so far, it’s what we’ve got.
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Pehaps a key idea is the age of Tigers hitters: they’re the third-youngest in the American League, with an average batting age of 27.0 years. (League average is 28.2 years.) Will a little seasoning help them out? Time will tell.
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The Marlins had two players in their starting lineup (Otto Lopez and Owen Caissie) that played for Team Canada in the WBC.
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The BYB folks are tired of me talking about this, but if you haven’t seen this band out of Quebec called Angine de Poitrine… hold onto something stable very tightly and click Play. I hate most new music, but this is so bonkers, even if you don’t like it, you’ve gotta respect it. (FYI: I don’t hate this. I like it. Very much.)
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On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 was launched, and I’m just going to assume that it all went really well for the whole mission. How about that Artemis II, though? Wow! Perfect re-entry, textbook splashdown, all four astronauts are doing great. That’s what ya like to see.
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