Toledo starts off hot but can’t keep pace in loss to Round Rock

Scores, news, and notes from around the Detroit Tigers farm system for Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

The Toledo Mud Hens started a cross-league series against the Pacific Coast League Rock Round Express hot at the plate, but the bats eventually quieted down and Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate fell, 8-4.

Matt Gage made his first start since 2019, and things didn’t go so well. He started off spinning his slider way out of the zone to fan former second-round pick Evan Carter, but he left an 85-mph changeup middle-middle to Justin Foscue, who took it for a ride over the wall in left-center.

Gage got the next three batters he faced, but two of those out came on hard-hit balls (99.5 and 106.5 exit velocity). That’s when he started to lose command of his stuff, and a four-pitch walk came back to haunt him in the second. Cody Freeman turned on a back-foot slider and cranked a two-run homer. He retired the next four straight but probably should have been punished on another middle-middle ball.

Fortunately, the Mud Hens’ offense struck early, too. Jace Jung won an eight-pitch at-bat and walked to start a two-out rally, and the whipping winds turned an Andrew Navigato pop-up into a circus act.

The Express’ third baseman couldn’t make a play on a routine fly ball behind home plate and tried to recover with a rocket to third, hoping to catch Jung. No dice. Jung slid into the bag, breaking up the play and the ball sailed into foul territory with plenty of time for him to get up and score. Bligh Madris rocketed a ball over the center fielder’s head to score another, giving Toledo an early 2-0 lead.

Tomás Nido added on in the second with a two-run homer to center off the batter’s eye, his first with the Tigers organization. Nido squared up an elevated cutter after getting into a 2-0 count, which is what you want to see from a player who could make his way to Detroit at some point this year.

That’s all the scoring Toledo would do until…, and Round Rock wasn’t even close to done. Gage left in the third inning with two outs in favor of Carlos Pena, a serviceable arm who finished last year in Double-A. The first two batters he faced in Triple-A went single and home run off him, immediately blowing the lead. All his stuff was in the zone and 90 mph slower, except for a 92.5 mph sinker that didn’t chart and a slider on which he drew a K.

Pena walked the leadoff man in the fourth and eventually saw him score after giving up a double and a sacrifice fly. He got Carter to swing and miss on the same low and away slider that Gage did, but that says more about the bat than the arm if it happens two at-bats in a row.

Bailey Horn was next out for Toledo. There was some good and some bad over his two innings of work. Horn can paint the upper-outside corner against righties with his 94 mph fastball, which sets up his sweeper as a good swing-and-miss pitch. But he also loses command now and then. Two walks set up an easy RBI single in the fifth, and Cody Freeman unleashed on the first ball he saw in the sixth to make it 8-4, Rock Round. Horn worked out of a first-and-third jam later in the inning, but it wasn’t a great outing.

Andrew Chafin delivered Toledo its first clean inning in the seventh, drawing two soft pop-ups that didn’t leave the infield and another soft grounder to strand two. While Chafin allowed two base hits, neither came on a poorly placed pitch and he worked out of the trouble just fine. That’s what veterans should do in Triple-A, and Chafin will probably end up in Detroit at some point this spring if he keeps it up.

Tyler Owens was even better in the eighth. He struck Carter out for the third time on the night and battled back from a 3-1 count to fan Foscue with a 95 mph heater above the zone. He capped off the only 1-2-3 inning of the night for Toledo with a soft grounder to Jung at second.

Unfortunately, the Mud Hens couldn’t hit a lick after the second. Five of their seven hits on the night came in the first two frames, and 11 of their 12 strikeouts came after that. The only top-30 prospect in the Rangers’ system that threw against them was Emiliano Teodo, who struck out four and didn’t allow a hit through two innings.

You’d like to see a little more offense against the five bullpen arms after hitting Dane Dunning well and knocking him out after two innings.

Jung: 0-2, 2 BB, 2 K

Nido: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, 1 K

Gage: 2.2 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR

Pena (L, 0-1): 1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Chafin: 1.0 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Owens: 1.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: The away series against Round Rock continues Wednesday night at 8:05 p.m. EDT, hopefully with less wind.