CLEVELAND Casey Mize, quietly, steadily, has become a rock in the Detroit Tigers ever-shifting rotation.
With a bullpen stretched extra thin, Mize was tasked with not only controlling the pesky Cleveland Guardians offense, but to do it efficiently and eat a minimum of six innings.
Mission accomplished.
Mize pitched seven scoreless innings Saturday with no margin for error, helping the Tigers squeak out a 1-0 win against the Guardians at Progressive Field.
It was the Guardians' ninth straight loss.
Mize didnt allow a hit until Jose Ramirez lined a single with two outs in the fourth. The only time he was real trouble was the sixth, when Brayan Rocchio led off with a double to right field and Mize didnt flinch. He got Steven Kwan to fly to left and struck out Nolan Jones the first depth-slider hed thrown him in three at-bats.
Manager AJ Hinch put up four fingers and issued an intentional walk to Ramirez.
Mize ended the inning getting Carlos Santana on a lazy fly to center.
Things got a little hairy in the seventh. Angel Martinez drove a ball to the wall in center that Matt Vierling ran down and next hitter Bo Naylor lined a ground-rule double to right.
No sweat. Mize got Johnathan Rodriguez to bounce out to shortstop.
Since coming back from a hamstring strain, Mize's four-seam fastball has been lively, not only in terms of velocity (94 to 97 mph) but also with the ride through the zone. He was spotting it at the top and bottom of the zone Saturday and mixing splitters, bullet sliders and depth sliders.
It was a master class in pitching to contact and missing barrels. He induced 11 groundouts.
Hes allowed two earned runs or less in six straight starts and lowered his ERA to 2.63.
Lefty Brant Hurter pitched a clean eighth inning. And after Will Vest threw 25 pitches to earn a four-out save Friday, Tommy Kahnle got the ball in the ninth and dispatched Ramirez and Santana before walking Daniel Schneemann on four pitches.
That set up a confrontation with left-handed hitting pinch-hitter Kyle Manzardo. Kahnle punched him out for his ninth save.
The offense, which produced 22 runs in three games in Washington, has been mostly muted in Cleveland.
They turned two solo homers into a 2-1 win Friday.
And Saturday, Spencer Torkelsons 20 home run, another solo shot, was the only marker against soft-tossing lefty Logan Allen. In fact, Torkelsons two hits, he also singled, were the only hits they mustered in the game.
All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres left the game in the first inning. After he walked and extended his on-base streak to 18 games, he was out at second on a fielders choice ground-ball.
He slid short of the bag and shortstop Rocchio fell over top of him, driving his forearm and elbow into Torres neck.
He laid on the ground for a couple of minutes and was woozy as he walked off the field. The teams initial diagnosis was a neck contusion.
©2025 . Visit at . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Copyright 2025 Tribune Content Agency.
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
