Tigers 3, Braves 1: Jack Flaherty solid while the kids do the damage

The Tigers number two starter made his second start of the spring.

The Detroit Tigers moved their Grapefruit League record to .500 on Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves . Jack Flaherty pitched well, and the young Tigers provided most of the offense.

This was just the second outing of the spring for Jack Flaherty. As with reliever Tommy Kahnle, the Tigers have been very conscious of the fact that they pitched to the end of the season and got nearly a month less of an offseason than most pitchers around the league. They also finished the year at their highest intensity level. So there’s no rush to ramp them all the way up. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Tigers kept Flaherty’s starts on the short side in the early weeks of the season.

The veteran starter fell into the Tigers’ lap late in the offseason as his struggles down the stretch last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers apparently scared some teams away. Considering the pitching injuries piling up already for several contenders, there will likely be some regrets about that. As long as Flaherty is good to go, their loss remains the Tigers gain.

For whatever reason, the Braves don’t have their stadium producing Statcast data publicly, so we don’t have the usual detail to go on. However, Flaherty was consistently 93-94 mph, topping out at 95 mph. That’s pretty standard for him, and as this was just his second start that’s pretty positive. The knuckle curve looked great, the slider good, and Flaherty racked up nine swings and misses against a lineup with most of the Braves’ starting position players included.

The really interesting note was Flaherty mixing in some changeups against left-handers. Rarely in his career has he mixed in more than one or two changeups in a game. He appeared to throw a handful of them in his four inning, 64 pitch outing. Perhaps that was just the game plan and he was trying to knock the rust off.

Flaherty didn’t allow a hit, walking two while striking out three Braves. That will do. He struck out Matt Olson twice and Jake Marisnick once. His command wasn’t real sharp and he got into some deep counts, but overall he looked pretty good for his second spring outing.

Here’s a look at the changeup drawing a whiff from Olson. Nothing outrageous here, but left-handers are typically looking for Flaherty to bend the curveball under their hands or try to dot the outer edge with fourseamers and sliders. You’re not really looking for this, and if he can feel more comfortable with it this year that gives him another wrinkle to his game for left-handed hitters to deal with.

Lefty Matt Gage, in camp on a minor league deal, has looked decent but still displays the lack of command that has kept him from finding any sustained success. He’s 32 years old and no more than a depth addition, but he does have a solid looking fourseamer-cutter combination and will mix in sinkers and sliders as well. Nothing crazy, but the Tigers may be able to get a little work out of him if he stays in Triple-A Toledo. He tossed a clean inning in the fifth.

Brendan White took over in the seventh and stranded a pair of singles. The right-hander has pretty good stuff but after struggling with nerve issues in his throwing arm, he’s just trying to rebuild some value with his high spin cutting fourseamer and breaking balls. Command remains the key issue for the 27-year-old to get back to the majors.

Veteran Dietrich Enns took care of the final three innings. He struck out three, allowing one run on Geraldo Quintero solo shot in the bottom of the seventh inning. The 33-year-old left-handed starter has been pretty good in camp as he returns from a few seasons pitching in Japan and Korea. He’s also pitched against minor leaguers for the most part. The Central Michigan grad is just a depth lefty and is auditioning for the whole league as much as the Tigers, but perhaps he’ll stick around and pitch for the Mud Hens this year and give the Tigers a potential spot starting option at some point. Right now there are no opportunities, but injuries can certainly change things.

As for the Tigers’ offense, the Tigers first good threat came in the third when Andy Ibáñez was hit by a pitch to leadoff the top of the inning. Ryan Kreidler struck out, but Trey Sweeney walked and Justyn-Henry Malloy was also hit by a pitch with two outs. Braves’ starter Grant Holmes got Colt Keith to ground out to Ozzie Albies at second base to turn the Tigers away.

Jace Jung smacked a solo shot off of veteran right-hander Dylan Covey in the sixth inning to break a scoreless deadlock. Jung has had some tough luck this spring, so it was good to see him rewarded for a good AB. The pitch looked like a cutter that caught too much of the strike zone.

Zack McKinstry had a pair of singles along the way, but it was a quiet game offensively on both sides, with the Tigers not seeing that much to hit from a fairly wild Holmes. They drew six walks and had two batters hit by pitches, managing five hits in the game.

The Tigers turned the game over to the kids in the bottom of the sixth. Max Clark took over from Kreidler in center field. Kevin McGonigle took over from Trey Sweeney at shortstop. Thayron Liranzo replaced Dillon Dingler behind the plate while Josue Briceño entered the game at first base as Colt Keith’s day was done. Brett Callahan, Franyerber Montilla, Robert Campos, and Hao-Yu Lee were all inserted defensively at this point too.

Max Clark singled to lead off the seventh and Kevin McGonigle drew a walk on five pitches as the right-handed Dylan Covey missed armside repeatedly. Liranzo got a first pitch fastball on the outer edge of the zone and smoked it up the right center field gap for a two-run double that made it 3-0 at the time. McGonigle walked again to lead off the top of the ninth inning, but otherwise there wasn’t much to report from the prospects.

On Wednesday, the Tigers welcome in the Tampa Bay Rays at 1:05 p.m. ET. Casey Mize will take on RHP Ryan Pepiot, and this one will be televised on FanDuel Sports.