The Detroit Tigers conserved their energy in the cold, snowy conditions on Monday until runners reached scoring position.
The Tigers (6-4) only had three hits through six innings against New York Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, but produced five runs on two of those hits en route to a 6-2 victory in the chilly series opener at Comerica Park.
The Tigers reached base for the first time in the third inning on consecutive walks from Jake Rogers and Ryan Kriedler at the bottom of the lineup. Andy Ibáñez delivered the Tigers’ first hit later in the inning, turning on a low, inside changeup for a three-run home run, his first of the season.
“You never know what guy it is going to be,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “You are going to need multiple guys to do well.”
Colt Keith and Rogers reached base in the fifth inning on an error and walk, before reaching scoring position on a sacrifice bunt from Kriedler. Justyn-Henry Malloy drove both in with a single up the middle on the Tigers’ second hit of the game.
“I don’t think anybody wanted to be out there any longer than we had to be,” Hinch said. “I know we did our best and I thought both teams battled and dealt with (the weather). It got better as the game went on and it’s hard.”
The Tigers enjoyed a comfortable lead after the two RBI hits as starting pitcher Casey Mize settled in for another strong performance. Mize gave up one run on an RBI single from Aaron Judge in the fifth inning, but otherwise shut down the Yankees’ offense, which came into Detroit tied for the most runs in MLB, 77, through nine games.
Mize is now 2-0 on the season with one earned run allowed and 12 strikeouts in 11⅔ innings pitched.
“The hitters telling me that the things that I am trying to do out there are working,” Mize said. “I’ve been trying a lot of different, new stuff and changing some things but the hitters are going to tell me what’s going to stick around. And I like what the hitters are telling me so far.”
Mize thrives with splitter
Mize took the mound as the snow started to fall at Comerica Park.
After starting the game walking Ben Rice, he settled in by drawing three flyouts from the heart of the Yankees’ order. In the second, he retired three straight batters in the second inning, including freezing Austin Wells with an inside fastball for a strikeout.
He stranded two more runners in the third inning following a Rice triple. Rogers picked off Rice during Judge’s at-bat, which ended in a walk, and then Mize got Cody Bellinger to line out to second base.
Mize escaped the fifth inning after giving up the RBI single to Judge by getting Bellinger to chase a splitter below the zone. He picked up one more strikeout on the splitter in the sixth inning to finish his day.
“Especially when you don’t have great feel for the baseball, like if you can’t grip the slider or splitter, you don’t want to get too heater-happy,” Mize said. “Because these guys will hammer heaters. So being able to land some other stuff, I knew it was going to be really important, especially in the elements.”
Mize struck out six batters in six innings, with four coming from the splitter and two from his fastball. Mize picked up six whiffs on eight swings against his splitter (75%). Mize threw six total pitches, but primarily relied on a four-pitch mix consisting of his fastball, slurve, splitter and slider.
Mize threw 88 pitches across six innings, allowing four hits and three walks to accompany his six strikeouts.
“To start the year like this, it is really positive,” Mize said. “Especially against probably the best, one of the best offensive teams in baseball right now.”
Tyler Holton pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief. The Yankees added one run against Beau Brieske in the eighth, but it was unearned after Keith recorded a fielding and throwing error on the same ground ball, allowing Bellinger to score from second. Tommy Kahnle pitched a shutout ninth inning against his former team with two strikeouts.
Manufactured offense
Since the Tigers’ bats started cold, they had to come up with creative ways to get runs across.
Rodón opened with a nice starting rhythm, quickly retiring the first seven Tigers batters with 29 total pitches, including three strikeouts against Spencer Torkelson, Manuel Margot and Javier Báez.
Rogers got the offense going by watching ball four in a 3-2 count, followed by another six-pitch walk from Kriedler in a 3-2 count. Ibáñez came up aggressive in the two-out scenario and swung at the first strike he saw. He drove the Rodón changeup into the home bullpen for the early 3-0 lead.
“I was focusing on his breaking balls and his slow pitches, not his fastball,” Ibáñez said through team interpreter Carlos Guillen. “Given that in spring training, he threw a lot of curveballs to me. I was waiting for a slow pitch or breaking ball.”
The next four Tigers batters recorded an out before Keith reached on an error from Oswaldo Cabrera, and Rogers walked again. Kriedler executed a perfect sacrifice bunt down the third base line to advance both runners and nearly beat the throw from Rodón to set up Malloy’s two-RBI single up the middle in a 2-2 count.
Keith scored again in the seventh inning after hitting a lead-off single to chase Rodón. Rogers drew his third walk, followed by a walk from pinch-hitter Kerry Carpenter to set up an RBI groundout from pinch-hitter Trey Sweeney.
Jared Ramsey covers sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com; Follow Jared on X or Bluesky.
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