The Tigers wasted a lot of scoring chances, but held on to take the first of two on Saturday afternoon.
The Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles tangled for the first time in 2025 on Saturday afternoon. Another good Casey Mize start, and key hits from Javier Báez and Spencer Torkelson powered them to a lead. Great work from Brenan Hanifee and Will Vest made it stick.
Entering the game with an American League leading 15-10 record, Casey Mize and the Detroit Tigers looked to stay hot. After a rainout on Friday, they matched up with an Orioles team that is scuffling looking to take advantage. The Tigers would face right-hander Brandon Young, who has pretty good stuff but limited command and was making just his second major league start.
Mize has been outstanding to start the season, and he took that into a relatively quick first inning. Leadoff man Cedric Mullins pulled a ground ball to Trey Sweeney to start the game, but the shortstop rushed a bit, bounced the throw, and Spencer Torkelson couldn’t pick it. You hate the unforced error, but Mize got a double play ball from a struggling Gunnar Henderson on the first pitch he saw. Jordan Westburg reached on a chopper that went about 15 feet up the first base line, but Dillon Dingler cut him down trying to steal second to turn the Orioles away.
The Tigers lineup matched up against a backup starter in Brandon Young. Kerry Carpenter was leading off in the DH spot and still nursing his hamstring injury. He popped out and Gleyber Torres put a fly ball out to right field for the second out on the inning. Zach McKinstry drew a walk, and Riley Greene dumped a blooper down the right field line and hustled into second base with a swim move to avoid the tag. McKinstry couldn’t score on the play, and so it was up to Spencer Torkelson. He grounded out sharply to Henderson at shortstop, and it was on to the second.
The Orioles managed to continue reaching base without much in the way of hard contact. A seeing eye single from Ryan O’Hearn just sneaked past Torres into right field. Mize struck out Heston Kjerstad, but Ramon Urias pulled a grounder into the hole and Sweeney knocked it down but had no chance to throw out the runner. Jackson Holliday was next, and he scared everyone with an opposite field fly ball that Riley Greene hauled in with his back against the fence. That left it up to Gary Sanchez, the Orioles catcher in this one with Adley Rutschman waiting for Game 2. Mize mixed some firm fourseamers with the slider and worked Sanchez into a two strike count and got a ground out to Torres to end the inning.
Mize was at 36 pitches, so from the Orioles perspective at least they were making it work. Only Holliday’s ball was really hit hard, but they were able to foul off some tough splitters and put the ball in play, while Mize was just attacking the zone and getting a bit unlucky with some well placed soft contact.
Jace Jung drew a walk to start the bottom of the second. A Dillon Dingler ground ball forced Jung but Dingler beat out the double play turn. Sanchez then tried to backpick Dingler as he spun his wheels dancing off first base. He was called out, but another swim move saw him just get back and the Tigers won the challenge. As all this played out, Young was struggling to locate his fastball and Trey Sweeney walked as well to bring Javy Báez to the dish with one out. This newfangled Báez, with the plate discipline points boosted, got ahead and smoked a double up the left field gap to plate Dingler. Báez booked it into second base with a slide on the infield side of the bag to beat the throw in. The bone saws were out, and the Tigers were up 1-0.
Young wanted nothing to do with Carpenter, missing badly with fastballs and curveballs and walking him to load the bases. Torres drove a fly ball out to Mullins in center field, and Sweeney tagged and scored to make it 2-0. That left it up to Babe McKinstry, Young fell behind him 3-0, and the Tigers were having visions of getting deep into the Orioles bullpen in Game 1. The home plate ump gave Young a gift fastball and then McKinstry checked him swing on a high fastball for a full count. Young missed up to issue his fourth walk of the inning. The bases were juiced yet again as Riley Greene dug into the left-handed batter’s box. Unfortunately, Greene’s struggles continued and he struck out on three pitches.
Frustrating, but still a 2-0 lead in the early going. Mize tossed a snappy 1-2-3 third, striking out Mullins along the way. Henderson flew out to Báez in center on Mize’s 50th pitch, and the Tigers were back up to bat.
Torkelson started the Tigers off with yet another 400 foot flyout to center field. Jung continues to foul off a ton of hittable pitches and eventually was frozen on a fastball to strike out, and Dingler was punched out swinging.
Mize popped out Jordan Westburg to start the fourth, but Ryan O’Hearn got 0-1 fastball too close to the first pitch and hit it the opposite way for a solo shot to make it 2-1 Tigers. Mize got ahead of Kjerstad and eventually struck him out on a perfect splitter at the bottom of the zone. Urias paddled a sinker back up the middle for a single and Holliday followed suit with a grounder into right field. McKinstry charged it to keep Urias from taking third, and Dingler checked him with a pickoff with Sanchez at the plate. Mize couldn’t get a chase on the slurvier slider, but went back to the split for a swinging strike three to snuff a potential rally.
Having escaped some self-created jams in the early innings, Young settled into his game and his changeup and curveball started finding their targets. Sweeney struck out, but Henderson double clutched on a little grounder off the end of Javy Báez’s bat and he beat it out, though it took winning another challenge to prove it. Carpenter was ahead early in the count, but Young eventually struck him out chasing a high fastball. Torres got a reprieve in a 1-2 count as the home plate ump missed a strike down and away, but he flew out to center to end the inning.
Mize returned serve with another quick inning. He started mixing in a lot more breaking balls as the Orioles order turned over for a third time through, but struck out Mullins with a high fastball. The inning ended on a screaming liner right over Mize’s head, but Sweeney was playing behind second base and snared it easily.
McKinstry reached on an infield single to start the bottom of the fifth. Riley Greene moved him to second with a ground out and Young was still locating his fastball more effectively. He got Torkelson on a fastball away for the second out and that was the end of his day. The Tigers let him off the hook early, and the young right-hander settled in pretty nicely to give the Orioles a decent short outing despite all the walks issued.
Right-hander Bryan Baker took over with two outs, McKinstry on second, and Jace Jung at the dish. The veteran throws decently hard, mixing in a good slider-changeup combination to handle either-handed hitters. Jung greeted him with his first knock of the year, lining a single through the box to score McKinstry and give the Tigers a 3-1 lead. Nicely done.
Dillon Dingler got a breaking ball down just out of the zone and he lined it over second base for a single and Jung pushed it and took third as Mullins throw in from center sailed well wide of third base. Dingler took third as the cutoff man was not at all in play, and that brought Sweeney up with two in scoring position and two outs. Baker missed away repeatedly and walked Trey Sweeney to load the bases, and that brought a mound visit by the Orioles pitching coach, Drew French, as Báez stepped into the box.
Baker fired a 98 mph heater for strike one on the outer edge, then missed down with a slider that Báez laid off on. A pair of fastballs just above the strike zone drew a pair of whiffs, and the squander was painful. Still, a 3-1 lead, but the Tigers had already had numerous opportunities to blow the game open and other than Báez himself, the knocks with runners in scoring position were not coming as the lineup was just too aggressive in RBI situations.
As it tends to happen, wasted opportunities are quickly paid for and Mize immediately got into trouble in the sixth. Westburg and O’Hearn started the inning with singles. Mize got Kjerstad to chop one sharply to first and Spencer Torkelson made a perfect throw home to Dillon Dingler, who put the tag on Westburg at the plate. So with runners on first and second and one out, Mize’s day was done as Brenan Hanifee took over.
Another good start for Mize, but not quite his best work. The Orioles are a tough lineup, and Mize really just got nickel and dimed a bit and was generally in control despite not having his best command. 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 5 K, is pretty good. He challenged them all game long and only a couple of balls were hard hit. Mize holds a 2.12 ERA, though his FIP is still up at 3.94. You can probably split the difference for an accurate read on how Mize is really doing in the early going.
Hanifee got behind Urias 3-0, but worked back into the count and got a pop up that Torkelson handled near the tarp for the second out. In a 1-2 count to Jackson Holliday, Hanifee bounced a changeup to even things up. Holliday fouled off a fastball, but a really nice changeup drew the whiff, and the Orioles were turned away. Nasty stuff.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde turned to power lefty Cionel Perez in the bottom of the sixth. Perez is having an ugly start to the season, but is typically really tough. Kerry Carpenter whiffed at a high breaking ball to strike out. Torres flew out to right, and McKinstry struck out on a slider to send us to the seventh.
Hanifee got Sanchez on a grounder to Sweeney to start the inning. Ramon Laureano gave one a ride to left and Riley Greene leapt and hauled in a probable home run ball before crashing back first into the wall and falling to the ground. He was just fine after the tumble and that was fortunate as he really sold out to rob that one. The best defensive left fielder in the game continues to shine even as the bat remains ice cold.
With Mullins and the toughest left-handed hitters coming up, A.J. Hinch made a change at that point, turning to Tyler Holton to handle the heart of the Orioles lineup. Uncharacteristically, Holton walked Mullins, and so he’d have to get Gunnar Henderson. Holton missed down with a first pitch sweeper and a sinker saw Henderson dump a blooper into left field as Greene sold out with a dive and nearly held onto the ball. Instead, it rattled loose for a single and it was first and third with two outs and right-handed hitting Jordan Westburg stepped to the plate. This at-bat felt like the crux of the game.
Holton spotted cutters to both sides of the plate to get to 0-2, then fired a fourseamer well high of the mark. A changeup drew a flinch but not a swing, and in a 2-2 count Westburg pulled a grounder down the left field line. It wasn’t that hard hit, and Jung was able to spear it but he had no chance to throw out a runner. Mullins scored to make it a 3-2 game, and pinch-hitter Ryan Mountcastle made a bid to left field, but again Riley Greene was there at the wall, and yes we wanted him on that wall, we needed him on that wall, and he put Mountcastle away to hang onto a one-run lead.
Perez struck out Greene to open the bottom half, making clear that defensive excellence notwithstanding, the All-Star is still scuffling. Fortunately, his boy is not scuffling. Torkelson got a first pitch fastball and crushed it over the wall in right center field for his eighth round tripper of the year. After watching drives die short of the warning track in center over the last week, he was due. 4-2 Tigers, and we love to see it.
At that point Hinch put in Andy Ibáñez to replace Jung, mainly for defensive reasons as this also forced Hyde into going to a right-hander and he obliged, pulling Perez and putting in Matt Bowman. Ibáñez lined out, and Dingler struck out to send us to the eighth.
Dylan Carlson pinch-hit for Kjerstad to start the inning, but Holton struck him out with a 92 mph fourseamer right on the outside black. However, Urias saw Holton miss badly with two pitches and then come back with a cutter on the inner edge. He launched a high fly to left and this time Riley Greene ran out of room. 4-3 Tigers. It feels like Holton is struggling a bit to start the year, but really his numbers are fine and the strikeouts are up. The steady dominance just hasn’t felt as steady in the early going this year. Holton should’ve had Holliday struck out with a perfect sinker but didn’t get the call. Another sinker two inches below the zone drew a checked swing, but the young top prospect held up and then fouled off another pitch. In a 3-2 count Holton broke off a hellacious sweeper that landed right on the outside lower corner and Holliday swung wildly and missed.
That was the end for Holton, as Will Vest came on to get the final four outs. Hyde inserted Rutschman to pinch-hit, and Vest issued a rare walk. Laureano flew out to Báez in center to end the half inning, and now the Tigers needed to pad a one-run lead to ensure victory.
Trey Sweeney lined out deep to right to open the frame, but Báez ripped a single into left field just over a leaping Henderson. Unfortunately, Carpenter and Torres lifted routine fly ball outs to send us to the ninth.
Vest had Mullins to deal with first, and he fell behind 3-1 after the home plate umpire missed a strike. The right-hander got a whiff at the top of the zone, and Mullins then flew out to Greene in left. Vest dropped in a first pitch slider for a strike, and then just missed with a tailing changeup and then a slider away. Vest pumped a heater to even the count 2-2 and then missed up by too much to draw a swing. A fastball down and in just surprised Henderson and a late swing whiffed for strike three. Left-handed hitters are really struggling with Vest’s explosive fastball. That left it up to Vest vs. Westburg, and Vest blew him away with heat to put this one to bed.
Good stuff from Casey Mize, big knocks from Báez and Torkelson, and other than a rare shaky Holton outing, the bullpen was strong. The Tigers move to 16-10 and still atop the American League.
The Tigers brought up Keider Montero for Game 2, but we’ll have to wait to see if he’d start in place of Jobe, or be available in relief to help spell the bullpen.
Final Score: Tigers 4, Orioles 3