The Detroit Tigers planned for their bullpen to cover six innings Saturday.
But Casey Mize — who tossed three perfect innings on 34 pitches in his Sept. 5 outing — wasn’t as electric against the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays. Under strict workload restrictions, Mize’s pitch count forced his exit after two innings, meaning the relievers needed to cover seven frames.
Upon Mize’s departure, the Rays already had the runs they needed.
But the Rays continued to pile on runs, handing the Tigers a 7-2 loss Saturday in the second of three games to even the series at Comerica Park. Detroit finished 3-for-31 with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Against Mize, Tampa Bay scored three runs on three hits and one walk.
“The story of the night is they just took control of the game,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “It never felt like we were back in the game after the three-spot in the second (inning) and the two-spot after that (in the fourth inning). They took control of the game and could do whatever they needed.”
TIME TO GRIND: Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal have plans on how to attack their innings limits
ANOTHER WEAPON: How Chris Fetter revitalized Michael Fulmer’s curveball with one finger
The Tigers (67-76) fell into an early deficit, but not before Mize worked a quick first inning. He retired three of the four batters he faced — Nelson Cruz reached safely on a bloop single — and only needed 13 pitches. Mize struck out Ji-Man Choi with an elevated fastball for the third out, and his shortened start seemed destined for success.
“The way the first couple hitters went, I thought he might go four (innings),” Hinch said. “The game changed quite a bit during that second inning. That certainly sped up my plan for Casey tonight. He didn’t execute quite as well against the bottom of the order. They made him pay.”
After 13 pitches in the first, Mize threw an uncharacteristic 35 pitches in the second. He struck out Randy Arozarena with a nasty slider, winning an eight-pitch clash, for the first out before Tampa Bay’s offense perked up.
A one-out triple from Joey Wendle set the tone, and the Rays used their aggressiveness on the bases to take a 1-0 lead. On a grounder to third baseman Jeimer Candelario, Wendle took off toward home plate. Candelario fired to catcher Eric Haase, but his tag was late. (The Tigers challenged the call from home plate umpire James Hoyer but lost.)
“To the naked eye, I thought he was out,” Hinch said. “The way the play was with the infield in, (Wendle) ran inside the line, which is exactly how you’re taught. It’s how the good teams do it with aggressive base running. I have to talk to Candy, but it looked like the throw was a touch inside and Haase with the sweep tag, (Wendle) was able to get around it. A game-changer, in the sense that it changed the scoreboard and the momentum of that inning.
“We wanted to challenge it because we thought we had a chance to get it overturned, but clearly they didn’t agree. It’s just one run at that point. That’s not the reason we lost. It was the reason we were behind.”
The next batter, Kevin Kiermaier, drilled another triple to the left-center gap for a 2-0 lead. Three pitches into his matchup with Taylor Walls, Mize got ahead with a 1-2 count. This at-bat, however, lasted eight pitches and ended in a walk.
Brandon Lowe’s ensuing sacrifice fly made it a 3-0 lead.
Of Mize’s 48 pitches, he threw 28 for strikes and struck out two. Facing 11 batters, he got ahead with first-pitch strikes against seven of them. He also generated three swings and misses: two with his slider and one with his splitter.
Hutchison leads bullpen
The Tigers went to two recent additions to the roster for the third, fourth and fifth innings. Bryan Garcia, who hadn’t pitched in the big leagues since July 6, gave his team 1⅔ innings of two-run ball, while Ian Krol — back for the first time since Aug. 19 — recorded the final out in the fifth inning.
Garcia threw 16 of 21 pitches for strikes; Krol posted five of seven pitches for strikes.
For the Rays’ runs off Garcia, both in the fourth inning: Wendle crushed a solo home run to right-center and Lowe chipped in an RBI single to center field for a 5-0 advantage.
WHAT HE SAID: Hall of Famer Jack Morris: ‘I am very sorry’ for remark about Shohei Ohtani
20 YEARS LATER: What Tigers manager AJ Hinch learned about humanity from 9/11 attacks
Ex-starter Drew Hutchison took the mound in the sixth. He did not disappoint in his second relief appearance since returning from Triple-A Toledo, as the Tigers needed length from their bullpen because of Mize’s and Tarik Skubal’s innings limits and Matthew Boyd’s elbow injury.
“He threw the ball very well,” Hinch said. “He’s continued to get left-handed hitters out, which is really important for him in any role. That’s a really tough lineup with a lot of potent left-handed hitters, so I was really happy with his changeup, his breaking ball, and his fastball command was pretty good.”
The 31-year-old pitched four innings, throwing 28 of 48 pitches for strikes. He allowed one run on two hits and one walk, striking out two batters. The lone run against him came in the fifth inning, when Arozarena smacked a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Rays a 6-1 lead.
“I would have liked to come in and put a zero up,” Hutchison said. “That’s important when you come out of the pen, to immediately put a zero up. I was disappointed that I came in and gave up that run right away. You want to put up a quick zero so the guys can get back in the dugout and start to chip away. Other than that, I thought I threw the ball well.”
After Walls’ sixth-inning single, Hutchison retired eight in a row to conclude his outing. He recorded both of his strikeouts — Wendle (slider) and Kiermaier (four-seam fastball) — in the eighth.
Drew Carlton completed the ninth, but Austin Meadows pushed Tampa Bay’s margin to 7-1 with a sacrifice fly.
Ex-CMU pitcher deals
Making his second start since returning from the injured list, Rays starter Chris Archer limited the Tigers to one run over four innings.
He allowed just two hits and one walk — hits from Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Cabrera, plus Haase’s free pass — while striking out two batters. The first hit from the Tigers came from Schoop to open the fourth inning. He drilled a double to the left-center gap.
Miguel Cabrera cut his team’s deficit to 5-1 with an RBI single to right. He has 2,974 career hits; he needs 26 hits over the final 19 games of the regular season to reach No. 3,000. He remains unlikely to reach the historic mark until 2022.
“He’s pretty creative with how he pitches,” Hinch said of Archer. “He’s never going to really throw the same pitch twice. He’s evolved as a pitcher. You can go up and try to hunt strikes to hit. When you get some, you have a chance. If you wait around, you can get in some bad counts. And if you chase, you chase. He took control of the game.”
INJURY UPDATE: Matthew Boyd diagnosed with elbow strain, to visit Tommy John specialist
SEPTEMBER SLUG: Known for singles, Harold Castro uncloaks plan to crush home runs
Once Archer had been pulled with left hamstring discomfort, the Rays turned the game over to their elite bullpen.
Except they didn’t, considering Rays manager Kevin Cash trusted Dietrich Enns — a 19th-round pick from Central Michigan University in 2012 — with the lead. The 30-year-old Enns entered Saturday with seven career games in the big leagues, including five in 2021.
But Enns dominated over four no-hit innings.
Victor Reyes was the lone runner to reach against Enns, doing so on a fielding error by Walls at shortstop with two outs in the fifth inning. Reyes then stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Mike Zunino. He was stranded, though, when Akil Baddoo struck out swinging on back-to-back 95 mph fastballs.
The left-hander struck out six Tigers, mowing them down with his two-pitch mix: 33 four-seam fastballs and 26 cutters. Of Enns’ 59 pitches, 44 went for strikes. He fired his four-seamer for seven swings and misses, while his cutter picked up four whiffs.
Shawn Armstrong pitched the ninth inning for the Rays. He allowed a one-out solo home run to Robbie Grossman, who has 23 this season, to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 7-2. Cabrera and Candelario were retired to end the game.
“Enns came in and threw some really good fastballs and two different variety of cutters,” Hinch said. “He was in complete control of the game. We got a little run at the end with Robbie’s homer, but we were never quite in it after the first punch they threw.”
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.