Well, here goes, the first recap of the 2026 season, even though these games don\u2019t count for anything other than an intellectual exercise. On a windy St. Patrick\u2019s Day, cool for central Florida in March \u2014 a laughable sentiment for those of us dealing with snow \u2014 a meaningless game ended with a meaningless score, 1-1.<\/p>\n
Grizzled veteran Young right-hander Justin Verlander, just a kid at 43, took the mound for the third time this spring. It was a Tale of Two Halves for Verlander with the Giants last year: first half, .786 OPS-against, 10 home runs given up, .273 batting average-against. Second half, .685 OPS, 6 dingers, .247 batting. Does Verlander still have a good season left in the tank? Unlike earlier in his career, he doesn\u2019t have to be Number One in the rotation; heck, if he\u2019s a solid third-best starter on this team behind Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez, that\u2019ll be a fine return on the investment.<\/p>\n
Chris Bassitt, the former Blue Jay, took the hill for the Orioles. He\u2019s been ultra-dependable, making 30 or more starts for the past four years, and over that time he\u2019s also achieved pretty respectable results, with an ERA of 3.77, a WHIP of 1.271, and roughly one home run surrendered per nine innings. He\u2019ll be a welcome addition to an Orioles team who, last year, had trouble getting anybody out.<\/p>\n
Verlander looked good early, occasionally touching 96 mph with his fastball. He also mixed in a slow curveball and a bit of the sweeper he developed last year, because apparently old dogs can learn new tricks. Kevin McGonigle, not at his traditional shortstop position, made a sensational, off-camera play on a grounder; since it wasn\u2019t on TV, this is as good as we can get:<\/p>\n
A real pitchers\u2019 duel unfolded as the game progressed, both teams only notching two hits apiece through four innings, and one of the Tigers\u2019 hits was a bunt single by Jahmai Jones. The Orioles finally broke the seal in the fifth with a solo home run by Bryan Ramos into the wind to left field, ending Verlander\u2019s day after 4 2\/3 innings: three hits, one run and no walks. Jorger Petri, a 20-year-old who spent last year in Lakeland, got the final out of the fifth.<\/p>\n
Kenley Jansen, possibly the Tigers\u2019 new closer, pitched the sixth and gave up a walk and a hit but with no damage surrendered. Bassitt\u2019s day ended with two outs in the bottom of the sixth and was relieved by Joe Glassey, and I immediately thought of \u201cGlass Joe\u201d from (Mike Tyson\u2019s) Punch-Out!! for the NES, and if you did too, you\u2019re also older than Justin Verlander, pal.<\/p>\n
Burch Smith, one of the veterans on which the Tigers took a chance this offseason, pitched the seventh. He bounced between the majors and minors for a few years before spending 2022 in Japan and 2023 in South Korea; he spent this past offseason in the Dominican Winter League and had great results, so who knows? He gave up a couple of hits but squeezed himself out of a first-and-third jam with two outs by striking out Samuel Basallo on a fastball. Non-roster invitee Ricky Vanasco, who got into a pair of games with the Tigers in 2024, pitched an uneventful top of the eighth with a strikeout.<\/p>\n
Max Clark walked in the bottom of the eighth; so long he gets on base, he could be wearing Flavor Flav\u2019s clock around his neck for all I care. He advanced to second on a Jace Jung goundout, to third on a wild pitch, and then scored on another wild pitch, tying the score at one. Hey, it\u2019s Spring Training, we\u2019re all figuring stuff out this time of year.<\/p>\n
Konnor Pilkington gave up a double to Ramos with two outs in the top of the ninth but stuck out Luis V\u00e1zquez looking to send it to the bottom of the ninth. Would the minor-league Tigers walk it off and avoid the tie?<\/p>\n
Well, with one out, Peyton Graham walked and Austin Slater singled, putting two runners on. Max Burt walked to load the bases, but Corey Julks hit a grounder to third for the ol\u2019 5-2-3 game-ending double play. So, no, there were no ninth-inning heroics \u2014 but we had some classic Verlander and a little bit of drama at the end, didn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n
Final Score: Tigers 1, Orioles 1<\/a><\/p>\n The Tigers didn\u2019t wear their traditional green uniforms on St. Patrick\u2019s Day, but they did have a green Olde English D on their hat. Bring back the green, I say.What we did have, though, was a stupid orange-on-orange battle. Springs-past have featured plenty of navy-on-navy, which is also stupid. Home teams should wear white and away teams should wear grey, and get off my lawn.Today is the day which celebrates the death \u2014 to the best of anyone\u2019s knowledge \u2014 of Saint Patrick, the main patron saint of Ireland. He was born in Roman Britain late in the 300s, and came to Ireland as a missionary early in the 5th century CE. Did he use a shamrock as a Christian symbol? Did he really rid Ireland of snakes? Did he enjoy a green beer now and then? To borrow a phrase from Nelson Muntz, \u201cRecords from that era are spotty at best.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, here goes, the first recap of the 2026 season, even though these games don\u2019t count for anything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,80457,3343,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-629794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroit-tigers-scores-standings","12":"tag-detroit-tigers-recaps","13":"tag-detroittigers","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116249785859184959","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}