Another rough performance from a starting pitcher and some sloppy play saw the Detroit Tigers swept on Wednesday night in Sacramento. The were pretty snakebitten at the plate, but the A’s jumped all over Casey Mize early, and the Tigers never threatened to make a game of it. The loss dropped them a half game back of the American League leading Toronto Blue Jays, who rallied to beat the Twins.
Things did not look very good from the start. The Tigers went down in order in the first with Luis Morales needing only 10 pitches. Then Casey Mize immediately got into trouble.
Mize gave up a leadoff single to Nick Kurtz after getting ahead of him, and then walked Shea Langeliers. He bounced back with a pair of good heaters and a slider down and away to punch out Brent Rooker swinging. However, against Tyler Soderstrom, Mize again got ahead 0-2 and then threw three straight balls. He had to come back with a fastball and it was up and just off the outside of the plate. Soderstrom served a line drive single the opposite way to left, and it was 1-0 A’s.
Meanwhile, Mize was already at 23 pitches, and he quickly fell behind the dangerous Lawrence Butler 2-0. A whiff and a ball just foul down the right field line got him back in the count. Mize dotted the inner edge with 96 for strike three, and got Darell Hernaiz on a ground out to second to escape. The inning cost him 31 pitches, but at least he limited the damage. Unfortuantely that wouldn’t last long.
Riley Greene lifted a fly out to open the second inning, but Spencer Torkelson worked into a hitter’s count and then smoked a 97 mph Morales heater off the wall in left center field. Butler misread it and the ball bounced way back toward the infield as Torkelson cruised into third base, as surprised as anyone to have a triple after he initially jogged out of the box expecting a home run. Wenceel Pérez struck out, and Zach McKinstry smoked a line drive that Zack Gelof snared with a leap for the final out of the inning.
Mize’s outing got worse in the second. He struck out JJ Bleday to start the inning, but Brett Harris singled and a high first pitch slider got launched into the seats by Zack Gelof. 3-0 A’s. Nick Kurtz followed that by dropping a liner into center field as Wenceel Pérez initially misread it. The Tigers defense has been downright horrendous in this series. Meanwhile, Mize couldn’t keep anything down. He got ahead of Langeliers 1-2, but got away with a hanging slider and then saw a 96 mph fourseamer up on the outer edge get drilled to right for a double that moved Kurtz to third. The Tigers already had Drew Sommers warming in the pen as Mize’s pitch count neared 50, and if you went to bed at this point, who could blame you?
Mize got ahead of Rooker by finally breaking out the splitter, but again just wasted three pitches nibbling and paranoid about making a mistake. Eventually, Rooker lifted a slider out to Pérez in center field and Kurtz tagged and scored to make it 4-0 with Langeliers still on second and two outs. A ground out to first from Soderstrom mercifully ended the inning.
Dillon Dingler drew a walk to start the third, but Trey Sweeney punched on three pitches and Colt Keith flew out down the left field line. Morales has a quality fastball, but nothing outrageous and the Tigers were putting the ball in play, but they couldn’t buy a hit for most of the right-hander’s outing. Gleyber Torres put up a real fight and worked another walk. That brought Kerry Carpenter to the dish after hitting it hard his first time up. Unfortunately he grounded out to second on the first pitch and the Tigers squandered again.
Mize finally started to get the ball down in the third, and tossed a 1-2-3 inning that ended with his pitch count at 70 through three frames. The leash was going to be short, but no doubt AJ Hinch didn’t love the idea of burning five or six innings from his bullpen despite the off day upcoming.
Riley Greene opened the fourth with a missile of a line drive to center field, but it wasn’t high enough to leave the park and Butler ran it down as he reached the warning track. Torkelson and Pérez struck out, the latter frozen by a heater spotted down and away for strike three as Morales started hitting 98-99 mph.
Mize’s first pitch of the fourth was a 91.2 mph sinker down and in, and Harris smoked it to left for a double. Gelof tapped one in front of the mound and Mize threw it wide of first, scoring Harris. Wonderful. Now Rafael Montero was warming. Mize fell behind Kurtz 3-1, but Dingler did cut down Gelof trying to steal second with a perfect throw. At least someone is still playing defense on this team. Mize walked Kurtz, yanking a pair of breaking balls, and AJ Hinch came out to take the ball.
Montero came on and got a fly ball from Langeliers for the second out of the inning, but then he walked Rooker. That brought Soderstrom to the dish, and Montero carved him up with a splitter to end the inning.
After a McKinstry ground out to start the fifth, Dingler smoked a fastball to left for a single. Trey Sweeney lifted a fly out, and so it was up to Keith. He squared up a fastball the other way, but right to Soderstrom for the third out. Montero returned serve, striking out Butler and putting up a 1-2-3 inning. On to the sixth.
The Tigers weren’t just punching out left and right. They were hitting the ball harder than the A’s, but nothing was dropping and they were hard pressed after Mize’s bleak outing.
Gleyber Torres struck out to start the sixth inning. Carpenter grounded out, and Greene hit another laser straight to Bleday in right.
Montero continued to do his thing and looked pretty good again. The adjustments to his fastball and more use of his splitter has paid some dividends early on. He got Harris on a pop out to Dingler behind home plate, then carved up Gelof with a pair of good splitters. Kurtz swung over a splitter for strike three as well, and Montero had acquitted himself very well to settle the A’s down.
For his part, Morales continued to cruise, and he finished his night with a pair of drives out to Butler in center from Torkelson and McKinstry, the latter requiring a diving catch, with another Pérez strikeout sandwiched in between. The Tigers had six outs left to work with, and somehow a comeback just didn’t seem to be in the offing.
At this point we got a Tommy Kahnle sighting. He had only pitched once since August 15, and he did the job this time out. Rooker blooped a little single with one-out, but Kahnle’s changeup was working and he got Soderstrom to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the seventh.
Right-hander Justin Sterner took over from Morales in the top of the eighth, and quickly struck out Dingler and Sweeney swinging, and then froze Keith with an 0-2 sweeper that bent back onto the outer edge.
Drew Sommers took over to try and keep a good night for the Tigers’ bullpen going. He gave up a sharp leadoff single to Butler, but he tried to steal second and Dillon Dingler again was having none of it. The A’s challenged but Butler was a dead duck. The only position player you could say had a good game was Dingler in this one, although Greene in particular smoked a few at’em balls along the way.
Hernaiz quickly got the A’s another baserunner with a single. Bleday grounded into a force of Hernaiz at second, but Sommers, who is known for getting ground balls and not giving up too many walks, then walked Harris. The big leagues are a different beast. Dingler took the opportunity to go out to Sommers to settle him down and talk about Zack Gelof.
The attempted factory reset didn’t work out. In a 1-1 count, Sommers threw a ball and Dingler fired to second to backpick Bleday. He had him caught, but the throw was a wide and skipped into center field as Bleday scampered to third. The next sinker was down on the edge, but Tony Randazzo missed it. Another heater drew a whiff and should have been a strikeout, but those are the breaks and Sommers had to throw it in there with a 3-2 count. His sinker was center cut and Gelof ripped it up the left center field gap for a two-run double. Sommers carved up Kurtz with a pair of good breaking balls, but it was 7-0.
With Brant Hurter banged up and no one else really looking like an option, Sommers is going to get a few more chances to settle in but it has gone pretty poorly so far.
Lefty Brady Basso took over to finish this one, and he promptly walked Torres. Jahmai Jones pinch-hit for Kerry Carpenter, and after pulling a deep drive foul, a hard grounder to third was converted by Harris into a double play. Andy Ibáñez hit for Riley Greene, grounding out on a nice play by Hernaiz to end the game.
The Tigers have an off day on Thursday to get their heads together. They’ll start a three-game set in Kansas City on Friday night.