NEW YORK Right-hander Casey Mize struggled to complete pitches with two outs on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, which harmed the Tigers in a 5-3 loss to the Yankees.
Consider the opening inning as an example. Riley Greene’s first-inning home run gave Mize a 1-0 lead. However, Mize gave up successive singles to Aaron Judge, Alex Verdugo, and Giancarlo Stanton after recording two fast outs to begin the bottom of the session. Judge then drove in Verdugo to knot the score at one.
The Yankees then took a four-run lead in the third inning. Judge doubled to left field with runners on first and second and no outs, scoring Anthony Volpe to give New York the lead.
After forcing Verdugo to ground out and striking out Stanton, Mize seemed like he was about to give up. However, Mize’s 1-1 pitch was crushed by Anthony Rizzo for a three-run home run over the right-field wall.
“It’s annoying that I put myself in a difficult situation,” Mize remarked. “I came very close to ending the inning with an out.” [Rizzo] launches a long ball. It irritates me. It denied us the opportunity to prevail. I was somewhat dissatisfied when I left this one.
Mize retired seven of the next eight batters following the home run, but gave up back-to-back singles to start the sixth and end the game with one out. Mize at least gave the Tigers an opportunity to continue playing.
Mize remarked, “I did some good things, but the big inning killed us.” Thus, I’ll focus on the positive aspects and keep working on them. However, I’m now really dissatisfied with the third inning.
Detroit’s offense is still not very reliable. Following Greene’s home run, right-hander Clarke Schmidt of the Yankees struck out nine of the ten batters he faced. However, Detroit tied the score in the fourth. Wenceel Pérez opened with a single and scored on a triple by Matt Vierling with one out. With a sacrifice fly, Colt Keith drove Vierling home to make the score two runs. The Tigers had just two at-bats with a runner in scoring position for the day, and that was it.
Spencer Torkelson, a first baseman who led the team in home runs last season with 31, is a worry for the Tigers. In 122 at-bats this season, he has not hit a home run. Over his last 11 games, he is 6-for-44 with 13 strikeouts. And for the left-handed power batter, Saturday was no better.
Torkelson was out after Keith’s sac fly. Keith singled to start the ninth, and he subsequently hit into a double play.
If anybody goes through it this way and is not frustrated, they don’t have a pulse,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s been a tough time for [Torkelson]. We know it. He has to fight his way out of it and he will. When you go through it, it feels like it’s endless. The game kind of leads you to big spots and it will be tough on you with ground ball double plays, just circumstances that come up. It’s safe to say he is frustrated for sure.
