The right-hander fueled Detroit’s rotation with six scoreless innings, but a stagnant offense and extra-inning collapse spoiled his stellar homecoming against the Blue Jays at Comerica Park.
Casey Mize’s return to the rotation came at the right time for the Tigers.
With Detroit’s pitching staff trying to hold together through injuries and recent heavy bullpen usage, Mize gave the Tigers exactly what they needed Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park. He worked six scoreless innings, allowed only two hits, struck out four and did not walk a batter in his first start back from the injured list.
It was his fourth quality start of the season, but the Tigers’ offense again failed to give him much room to work. Toronto tied the game in the seventh, pushed across the automatic runner in the 10th and beat Detroit 2-1, dropping the Tigers to 0-3 in extra-inning games this season.
Daulton Varsho delivered the go-ahead single in the 10th off Tyler Holton, scoring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from second. Detroit had one final chance in the bottom half, but Jake Rogers grounded out, Kevin McGonigle moved Zack Short to third with a groundout and Dillon Dingler struck out to end it.
It was another game where the margin was thin and the offensive issues were not hard to find.
Matt Vierling supplied Detroit’s only run with a solo homer in the sixth inning, his third of the season. For a few minutes, it looked as if that swing might be enough. Mize had already given the Tigers six scoreless innings, and Detroit had a 1-0 lead going into the seventh.
But Kyle Finnegan’s underlying numbers caught up with him. Finnegan entered the game with a 1.31 ERA and a 4.55 FIP, the largest gap among qualified major-league relievers, according to the numbers entering Saturday. He also came in as one of only eight relievers with a higher walk rate than strikeout rate, at 17.9% walks and 16.7% strikeouts.
Yohendrick Piñango led off the seventh with his first career home run, tying the game at 1. Finnegan avoided further damage, but the Tigers never recovered offensively.
Detroit had chances. The Tigers loaded the bases in the third with two outs before Gage Workman struck out. They put two runners on in the ninth after Riley Greene singled and Spencer Torkelson followed with a base hit, but Zach McKinstry hit into a forceout and Colt Keith struck out to send the game to extras.
The loss also added another layer to what has been a rough offensive month.
The Tigers managed one run Saturday, and major-league teams are now 12-135 this season when scoring one run. Detroit did not beat that trend, even with Mize giving them six shutout innings.
The May numbers tell the same story. Greene has carried the lineup, entering the day hitting .438 with a .500 on-base percentage, .563 slugging percentage and 203 wRC+ for the month. Dingler has been productive, too, at .255/.300/.511 with a 123 wRC+. After that, the drop-off has been steep.
Colt Keith entered with a 76 wRC+ in May. Kevin McGonigle was at 63. Vierling, even with Saturday’s homer, came in at 60. Torkelson was at 51, Wenceel Pérez at 34, Hao-Yu Lee at 33 and McKinstry at 6. For a team trying to survive injuries, roster shuffling and inconsistent run prevention, that is not enough support.
Greene did extend his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest active streak in the majors, but the Tigers have not been able to turn his production into consistent wins.
That is what made Saturday frustrating. Mize’s return was a clear positive. McGonigle made a strong defensive play at shortstop. Vierling gave Detroit the lead. The bullpen, outside of the Piñango homer and Varsho’s extra-inning single, mostly kept the game within reach.
But the Tigers are not giving themselves much room for error right now. When the offense scores once, every pitch, every baserunning decision and every missed chance gets magnified. Saturday was another example.
Detroit had the starter it wanted, the lead it needed and multiple chances to create separation. Instead, Toronto stayed close long enough to steal the game late.
The Tigers do not need to overcomplicate what happened. Mize looked healthy. The pitching staff gave them a chance. The offense did not do enough with it.
Detroit looks for the series win tomorrow.
Follow me on "X" @rogcastbaseball
