Tigers 10, Angels 4: A Dillon Dinger brought this back around

A win for Casey Mize’s birthday!

Happy birthday, Casey Mize! For his 28th, he was taking the mound against the Angels (anyone else feel like we’ve had a lot of west coast games early this season?) The Angels had Yusei Kikuchi up in their rotation.

Would Mize walk away with a win on his big day? Well, let’s just see what happened…

In the top of the first, Gleyber Torres took a one-out walk, but two outs followed to leave him stranded. In the home half, Mize got three outs in a row, a great first gift of the game for him.

The Tigers went 1-2-3 in the top of the second. While Mize was looking good, the Angels got the best of him in the bottom of the second, and it was Angels catchers getting to him. Logan O’Hoppe, hitting DH, took a solo home run deep, then Travis d’Arnaud hit a double to right. Jo Adell hit a comebacker right to Mize, who turned the ball over to Torres to catch d’Arnaud in a classic rundown. A groundout ended the inning with minimal damage, but the Angels were up by one at the end of the second.

It didn’t take long for Detroit to bounce back. Javier Baez crushed a solo home run to the deepest part of the park to tie the game. Then two outs later, Gleyber Torres hit a bomb of his own.

Riley Greene took a hit by pitch to the tricep, which looked like it stung badly, but he shook it off to take his base. He wouldn’t have to wait long before he got to head back to the dugout. In the home half, Zach Neto singled, and then successfully stole second base. Then with two outs, Jorge Soler hit a two-run homer to almost the exact same location the last two Tigers’ runs went. Guess it’s a good night for the long ball. Not so good for the birthday boy. Spencer Torkelson chased down a pop up to foul territory to end the inning.

In the top of the fourth Dillon Dingler got a two-out single, but the Tigers would leave him stranded. The Angels continued to batter Mize in the bottom of the fourth, O’Hoppe singled to start the inning, then d’Arnaud singled right behind him. Jo Adell grounded into a double play, getting O’Hoppe and d’Arnaud out. Kyren Paris took a two-out walk, then a Kevin Newman single brought Adell home.

In the fifth, Gleyber Torres got a two-out single, then Riley Greene singled to follow him. A final out left them stranded. In the bottom of the inning Mize finally got a 1-2-3, and in no small part thanks to an absolutely insane catch in center by Baez for the final out of the inning, which was over the yellow line and would have otherwise been a home run. (Side note, the broadcast crew said something about how even IL-bound Parker Meadows would appreciate that catch. and Meadows texted the crew to let them know he was watching and was proud of Baez. Gotta love knowing Meadows is still keeping up with things even from home.)

Brock Burke came on in the sixth to replace Kikuchi, and he got the Tigers out in order. Mize was back out for the sixth and aside from allowing a walk to d’Arnaud seemed to have smoothed out the bumps, getting out of the inning without major issues.

Ryan Zeferjahn was the next Angels’ pitcher out of the pen. It didn’t take him long to get the Tigers out in order. The Tigers returned the favor with another three-up, three-down inning.

In the eighth, Jo Adell did his best to try to smother a bounce and turn it into a catch, but he had no such luck and Gleyber Torres was safe on first and chased Zeferjahn, who was replaced by Reid Detmers. Colt Keith replaced Torres as a pinch-runner. Then Riley Greene took a walk. Ibanez then hit a little blooper into center, which got bobbled by Adell, allowing Torres to score and getting two runners into scoring position. McKinstry then singled, scoring Greene to tie the game. McKinstry was able to get to second thanks to some slow fielding. Then a Dillon DINGER brought three more runs across.

Jose Fermin came in for the mid-inning rescue and struck out Baez. Trey Sweeney then singled. The Tigers weren’t able to pile on more, but they had seized the lead back. Casey Mize’s night was done, with a final line of 7.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HR on 95 pitches. It was certainly not the best outing we’ve seen from him this season, with his command rocky off the hop, but he settled later into the game. Tommy Kahnle was out of the Tigers’ pen, and he got three out in order.

Garrett McDaniels came out for the ninth, hoping to keep the Tigers limited. He walked Colt Keith. He advanced to second on a groundout, and then Andy Ibanez singled, allowing Keith to score. Ibanez then stole second. Torkelson then hit a no-doubter to score two more runs.

Dingler got a two-out single. He wouldn’t get to score again this inning, but the Tigers had certainly padded their lead heading into the bottom of the inning. We also unfortunately did not get to see Tommy Kahnle take an at-bat because the Tigers had washed the DH by putting Greene in left. Too bad. Tyler Owens came in for the bottom of the ninth, making his major league debut. He got two groundouts before giving up a single to a pinch-hitting Gustavo Campero. Campero took second on defensive indifference. Owens got all three outs, but didn’t get his first big league strikeout.

Your Detroit Tigers are the first American League team to 20 wins, and Tarik Skubal starts tomorrow.

Final: Tigers 10, Angels 4