Early spring games don’t mean much but we’re just happy to have baseball back!
Detroit Tigers pitchers struggled to throw strikes for a while in this Grapefruit League season debut, and the Phillies took advantage to build a 6-0 lead. The bullpen then locked them down the rest of the game while the Tigers’ minor league hitters put together a comeback. In the end, Justice Bigbie was the hero, lining a walkoff single to make it 1-0 on the year for the gritty Tigers.
Nothing has brought the end of a fairly long, cold winter closer than hearing Dan Dickerson and Carlos Peña on the air this afternoon. They opened the broadcasdt talking Kenta Maeda and his advanced state of preparedness this spring. That was quickly on display. Maeda was consistently 91-92 mph in his first inning, ramping up to 93 and near 94 mph in his second inning of work.
In the first, Maeda punched out Johan Rojas with a high breaking ball. He then got a ground out from Bryson Stott, and then punched out Alec Bohn with a swing and miss splitter to end the inning.
The Phillies started veteran right-hander Nabil Crismatt and he retired Parker Meadows, Andy Ibáñez, and Zack McKinstry in order, all on balls in play.
Maeda came back out and punched Max Kepler on a foul tip into the glove on a sweeper down and in. Buddy Kennedy, who was briefly a Tiger last year, went down on a slider down and away after an eight pitch battle. Rafael Marchan flew out to end the inning on a 92.7 mph fourseamer, and Maeda’s day was done.
The odds of Maeda being in the rotation are pretty slim this season, but after coming to camp throwing 86-88 mph last year, seeing a lot of 92-93 mph this spring is certainly a positive sign. He’s been really good in his career when he has that extra gas in the tank. The veteran right-hander has the craft to be an effective part of the bullpen in the final year of his two-year contract. It’s day one, but he’s off to a good start.
Justyn-Henry Malloy led off the bottom of the single with a solid single into center field. Spencer Torkelson lifted a fly out to left field as Dickerson and Peña talked about the lack of roster space for either Malloy or Torkelson right now. Malloy is taking balls at first base, and the two seem set to start the year sharing time at first base in Toledo. Finding a way to crack the roster may be difficult this year.
Bligh Madris was up next and he ripped a drive to center field that the wind beat down into a fly out. Minor league signing Jahmai Jones, who is looking to play second base and some left field for Toledo and perhaps offer some support in case of injury, was up next. Jones struck out, but offered the first look at the challenge system, correctly challenging a called strike at the bottom of the zone during the at-bat.
Next up for the Tigers was Matt Manning, who is probably in his last year with the Tigers if he can’t take a big step this season. He showed a harder curveball, with no sign of the sweeper he’s been throwing the past two seasons.
Manning took on Cal Stevenson to open the third inning. He delivered a 95.7 mph fastball, a hard splitter at 89.8 for a called strike, and then an 0-2 heater at 97.3 mph over the middle that Stevenson sprayed to the wall the opposite way for a double. Manning got Rodolfo Castro to fly out to Jahmai Jones in left, and was pumping plenty of 95-97 mph fourseamers to go with the hard split. He froze Matt Kroon for strike three, which was challenged, but confirmed in a few seconds, and the ABS system appeared to be working pretty quickly.
Johan Rojas came to the plate with Stevenson still on second base. He dumped a soft single into right field to plate the game, and the season’s, first run. 1-0 Phillies. Manning then walked Stott, and a little comebacker from Bohm tipped off Manning’s glove for an infield single. That was enough pitches in an inning for the first outing, and that was a wrap for Manning for the day.
Tim Naughton took over and gave up a two-run single to Max Kepler. 3-0 Phillies. Naughton eventually got out of the inning, and RHP Angel Rangel took over on the mound for Philly in the bottom of the third.
Ryan Kreidler led off with a walk, looking to finally get through a season without getting his hand or wrist broken by a pitch. Depth catcher Brian Serven struck out, and Meadows popped out to shortstop as Peña discussed the Tigers’ center fielder adding 10 pounds of muscle over the offseason. A soft tapper in front of the plate from Ibáñez ended the inning.
Interestingly, the Tigers sent Manning out for his regularly scheduled second inning in the fourth. Spring training allows this flexibility so that pitchers can still get their scheduled innings with breaks, even if an inning gets extended and a reliever has to finish it off.
Manning issued a walk to Stevenson, missing up a bunch while facing him a second time, and the Phillies center fielder promptly stole second base. Manning then walked Castro as well, mainly by missing down. That brought our first Chris Fetter mound visit of the season.
Matt Kroon flew out sharply to center field for the first out of the inning, and three good fastballs at the top of the zone punched out Rojas swinging. Manning was still wild, however, and he then issued his fourth walk in two innings, putting Stott aboard to load the bases.
That was the end of his day. Statcast data on Manning’s stuff was pretty good. Location and consistency was not. Hey, it’s the first day of the Grapefruit League season. There’s just more heat on a pitcher who is fighting for his major league life, as is the case for Manning.
PJ Poulin came on and got a ground out from Alec Bohm to turn the Phillies away.
Zach McKinstry and Justyn-Henry Malloy made a pair of quick outs in the air to start the bottom of the fourth. Spencer Torkelson pulled a high fastball through the left side of the infield for a single, but Madris grounded out to end the inning.
Left-handed reliever Matt Gage took over in the fifth for the Tigers. He’s bounced around the league for a while but has never broken through at the major league level. He immediately walked Kepler on four pitches, and I began to wonder, has Chris Fetter lost his touch? Are we doomed? Throw strikes, dang it!! But no it’s February 22 and really none of this matters much.
Buddy Kennedy followed with a missile to left field for a two-run homer, and it was 5-0 Phillies. Gage went on to a long, long inning, but eventually got a double play ball 6-4-3 to escape any further damage.
Someone named Joel Kuhnel, a right-handed thrower of balls, took over for the Phillies in the bottom of the fifth. Jahmai Jones appeared to walk on four straight pitches, but the Phillies challenged the last call and got it overturned, ruining Dickerson’s scorecard for the game. Kuhnel bounced back and punched Jones out.
Ryan Kreidler crushed a one-hopper at 105.8 mph off the warning track and over the center field wall into the wind for an automatic double. That was the Tigers best swing of the day to that point. Brian Serven struck out, but minor league outfielder Ben Malgeri, a popular org player, followed Kreidler’s path with a screaming one-hopper over the center field wall for an RBI double. 5-1 Phillies.
That brought Hao-Yu Lee to the plate. We like us some Hao-Yu Lee. After tearing up Double-A as one of the youngest players in the Eastern League last year, Lee should be getting a little more top 100 love than he is. Lee is a second baseman, but he’s working at third base a good bit this spring. He’ll be at Triple-A Toledo this year and could help the Tigers out later this summer.
Lee got a steady dose of mid-90’s fastballs over the middle, but he was just fouling them off. The at-bat went 12 pitches as Lee fouled off eight pitches, most of them pretty hittable, and eventually drew a walk.
Zach McKinstry was up next, but Triple-A infielder Eddys Leonard pinch-hit for him. The Phillies went to their bullpen for RHP Jaydenn Estanista. The infielder pulled a ground ball to shortstop, but the Phillies fielder, Rodolfo Castro, couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. It was ruled a single and the bases were juiced for Tigers’ catcher Tomas Nido, who struck out to strand the bases loaded. DOOM.
The Tigers made defensive substitutions all over the field at this point. Hao-Yu Lee played third base, while Andrew Navigato took over at shortstop.
Right-hander Chase Lee, who the Tigers traded for last summer and who holds a precious 40-man roster spot, took over in the top of the sixth. The side-armer doesn’t throw hard but he’s typically really effective against right-handed hitters. He collected a strikeout but also gave up a solo shot to make it 6-1 Phillies.
Jake Holton was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the sixth. Justice Bigbie singled, but Unroe and Navigato flew out. Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo stepped to the dish and got a breaking ball over the outer edge and smoked it for a two-run double. 6-3 Tigers. Malgeri followed with a sharp single to center field, and Alfonzo scored to make it 6-4. That brought Hao-Yu Lee to the dish, but he hacked over a sweeper and struck out to send this to the seventh inning.
Brendan White took over on the mound in the seventh. The right-hander missed most of the 2024 season with a nerve injury in his arm after a pretty solid 2023 MLB debut where he posted a 3.85 FIP across 40 2⁄3 innings and gave the Tigers another reliever with solid strikeout numbers. He punched the first two hitters he faced and got a fly out to left.
There wasn’t much else to report. Wilkel Hernandez, trying to transition to a relief role after being a starter on the Tigers farm since coming over from the Angels as a teenager back in 2018 in the Ian Kinsler trade, pitched the eighth. He is still only 25 years old somehow. I guess the math checks out there. Anyway he gave up a single and a walk but shut down the rally before the Phillies could add any runs. Still 6-4 Phillies headed to the bottom of the eighth.
Thayron Liranzo got his first AB in the bottom of the eighth and pulled a sharp ground ball through the right side of the infield for a single. That was his first AB above the A-ball levels, so hey nice start. Andrew Navigato got a cutter over the middle of the plate in an 0-2 count and smoked a double to get Liranzo to third. Alfonzo popped out, but Malgeri came through with a two-run single to tie the ballgame at six apiece. Hao-Yu Lee got a curveball up and hammered a drive at 104.9 mph to center field, but it was caught on the warning track to send this to the ninth.
Hernandez spun a quick top of the ninth, while Dickerson and Peña discussed the automated strike zone. Dan is clearly not loving it, and I think a lot of fans are going to agree until they get used to it. The game is just going to look quite a bit different than it ever has before. Hopefully the adjustment won’t take too long, and hey, it’s just hard to argue against consistency. Once things are standardized and everyone is used to it, the complaints will probably quiet down. Then the debate will be about moving on from the challenge system to using the ABS full-time. Right now the league is going to try and have it both ways, but that can’t last. Once you install a hard and fast standard, leaving it to the umpires again when a team is out of challenges is going to become indefensible.
In the bottom of the ninth, Tomas Nido lined a one-out single to give the Tigers a chance to win the game. Outfielder Carlos Mendoza, one of the peskiest baserunners in the entire system, took over as the pinch-runner. Jake Holton drew a walk from Phillies lefty Wesley Moore, and that brought Justice Bigbie back to the dish.
Bigbie got a sinker on the inner edge and lined an RBI single to plate Mendoza and walk this one off. 7-6 Tigers victory. Sure, little of this matters, but still a fun way to start the Grapefruit League calendar. The Tigers? Still gritty, my friends.
Tomorrow’s matchup on the road against the Yankees will be televised on FanDuel Sports Detroit at 1:05 p.m. ET.