When the Detroit Tigers turned a double play in the sixth inning, rookie Casey Mize gazed into the bullpen. Reliever Daniel Norris appeared ready to pitch.
Mize then turned to the dugout, where manager AJ Hinch took his first steps toward the mound. The 24-year-old — recently graduated from prospect to developing major leaguer — swore in frustration.
“But I didn’t see him signal (to the bullpen),” Mize said. “I just had my eyes on him, watching him come up.”
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This was an important moment for Mize. He fell behind in counts all night, throwing 13 first-pitch balls and caving into nine three-ball counts against 23 batters. It looked like he was going to get beat up after the first inning, but he competed.
For the third start in a row, Mize pitched six innings. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft has a 4.17 ERA through seven games this season.
Hinch described Wednesday’s game as a “mature outing” from Mize, who gave up two runs on three hits and two walks with four strikeouts. He set the tone for the Tigers (12-24) in a 4-2 win over the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park, marking a three-game winning streak.
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When Hinch reached the mound Wednesday night, he didn’t ask for the baseball. He wanted to check how Mize felt after throwing his 95th pitch. Andrew Benintendi, the No. 5 hitter in Kansas City’s lineup, was getting ready to bat with a runner on third base.
“I want it,” Mize said.
“I want you to have it, but you better go right at him,” Hinch said. “Don’t dance around it. This is your guy. I believe you can get him, but you better go right at him.”
Mize pumped in a first-pitch 94 mph four-seam fastball up and in on Benintendi; perfect command. Benintendi swung the bat — soft contact in the air. Robbie Grossman made the catch in left field to end the sixth inning.
Mize emphatically clapped with his glove and pitching hand on his way back to the dugout, where Hinch greeted him. It wasn’t easy. He needed 96 pitches to get through six innings, but Mize aced another developmental test during his second-career win and first at Comerica Park.
“Once again, really appreciative of a manager that’s going to believe in me and let me ride it out,” Mize said. “I’m really appreciative and proud to play for AJ Hinch.”
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Understanding the outing
For a better perspective of Mize’s flaws, reliever Derek Holland has some insight. Holland, a 13-year MLB veteran, has logged 315 career games and pitched for the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the 2011 World Series.
His teammate Mize just finished the 14th game in his career.
“We’re going to make 30 starts (this season),” Mize said Holland told him. “Ten of them, you’re going to feel awesome, have your best stuff and be able to dominate. Ten of them, it’s going to be OK stuff, and you’re going to have to grind through it. And 10 of them, you’re going to have nothing.”
Mize added: “Tonight, I felt like I didn’t have much at all.”
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In the first inning, Mize grazed Whit Merrifield’s jersey with a two-seam fastball for a hit-by-pitch. The mistake was an early sign Mize’s command would fail him at times. He walked Carlos Santana, and Salvador Perez clubbed a first-pitch slider for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
In his previous two starts, he learned about not letting poor individual at-bats snowball into a disappointing performance.
“Let’s just throw up zeros,” Mize said. “One zero at a time and keep going.”
After getting behind 3-0 in the count to Ryan O’Hearn, Mize responded with three consecutive strikes to send him down swinging to complete the first inning. The Tigers trailed 2-0, after Benintendi hit a sacrifice fly, but the offense tied the game by the third inning.
“You can win with less than your best stuff in a night where you just stay in the fight and keep pitching,” Hinch said. “He won those battles, and that was key to the night. He could have melted down and created more chaos, and I have to go get him. Instead, he came through with some pretty gutsy pitching when he needed to.”
After a two-out single in the second, Mize struck out Merrifield looking, beginning a streak of 10 batters in a row retired.
He fired 39 four-seam fastballs, 23 two-seam fastballs, 21 sliders, seven curveballs and six splitters. Mize’s fastball topped out at 96.8 mph, went as low as 90.4 mph and averaged 94.2 mph. The selection was by design, Hinch said, to induce weak contact amid his command troubles.
Hinch said Mize’s splitter “will be a weapon, but it’s not his only weapon.” The pitch-mix will change based on the opponent because “he’s got ways to battle any kind of team and any kind of offense,” Hinch said.
Mize needed 22 pitches in the first inning, 18 in the second, 12 in the third, 19 in the fourth, 15 in the fifth and 10 in the sixth.
“It’s just competing hard,” Mize said. “That’s really all it comes down to, just competing hard, even when I didn’t have my A-stuff or my B-stuff. You know, it was just bad stuff, but I was able to compete through that.”
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To start the sixth, Santana snapped Mize’s dominance with a four-pitch walk. Perez followed with a single to put two runners on. Mize stayed composed and his two-seamer forced Jorge Soler into a 6-4-3 double play.
Two outs.
That’s when Hinch came to visit. Did he ever plan to pull Mize?
“We’ll never know,” Hinch said, laughing.
Only one thing matters: Mize finished the sixth inning.
“I was in a lot of disadvantage counts, a lot of three-ball counts,” Mize said. “Being able to compete in those moments is what I’m most proud of from tonight’s start.”
Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.