Lakeland, Fla. — Andre Lipcius almost seemed embarrassed to talk about it.
“It’s a spring training at-bat,” he said.
True. The Tigers split the minor league minicamp into two teams — Team Horton and Team Trammell — and played a controlled, six-inning scrimmage at Joker Marchant Stadium Thursday. But on a team with top prospects Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Ryan Kreidler, it was third baseman Lipcius, ranked No. 22 in the system by MLB Pipeline, who had the loudest hit — clubbing an opposite-field home run off right-hander Garrett Hill in the second inning.
“I missed a couple of fastballs early (in the count),” said Lipcius, the 2019 third-round pick entering his age-24 season. “I didn’t offer at the slider, so I think he wanted to go back to the pitch that I wasn’t handling at the beginning of the at-bat.”
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Lipcius, a right-handed hitter who hit 12 home runs between High-A West Michigan and Double-A Erie, was lying in wait — driving the pitch over the wall in right field.
He singled later in the game, which was the first time these players have done anything other than live batting practice and drills since camp opened two weeks ago.
“It gets you excited for the season, just putting the uniform on and playing a game,” he said. “Especially since we hadn’t played in so long. It was exciting to do something different other than train.”
It was an encouraging couple of swings for Lipcius, too, given how hard he’d worked this offseason to refine his mechanics at the plate. After posting a .357 on-base percentage, with just 16 strikeouts and 12 walks, and an .839 OPS in 98 plate appearances at West Michigan, he struggled to adjust to Double-A pitching (.235/.312/.378, 82 strikeouts in 385 plate appearances).
“I’m just really excited to get back because I did a lot of stuff in the offseason that was beneficial for me,” he said. “So I’m ready to go.”
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He made some changes to his strength program, for one. But more to the point, he fully invested himself into changing his swing.
“Just tweaking some swing things I had a problem with last year,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do a couple of things last year that I wanted to do. I made the changes and I feel good.”
It started at the Tigers’ skill acquisitions camp, which took place in October, and continued through the offseason with a couple different instructors.
“Being around a lot of pro players, you can learn things and talk about things and change things,” he said. “It’s honestly just rotating better and sequencing the swing better to be able to hit a lot more pitches. It’s being more adjustable.”
Which, in a sense, is what he showed in his home run at-bat Thursday — adjusting to a fastball that had beaten him twice in that same at-bat.
Around the horn
…First-round pick Jackson Jobe was having trouble locating his fastball in his one inning of work. Of his 17 pitches, only seven were strikes. He got himself out of trouble, though, inducing a 4-6-3 double-play from his roommate Izaac Pacheco.
…Right-hander Beau Brieske started for Team Horton and pitched a quick and clean, eight-pitch first. But the final out might’ve left a bruise. He was drilled on the leg by a hard-hit ball off catcher Dillon Dingler’s bat. Brieske seemed fine, walking back to the clubhouse with a coach and not a trainer.
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…Greene grounded out and walked, seeing 11 pitches in his two at-bats. Torkelson was 0-for-2, flying out to the warning track in center in his second at-bat.
…Right-hander Nick Kuzia, whom the Tigers plucked from the Padres in the minor league Rule 5 draft, may have had the most impressive inning, blowing lively fastballs by three hitters, including outfielder Eric De La Rosa. Kuzia also threw the wildest pitch — launching one well behind right-handed hitting De La Rosa before punching him out two pitches later.
…Speaking of De La Rosa, his speed created a run in the second inning. He was hit by a pitch, stole second and went to third when Dingler’s throw went into center field. He scored on a sacrifice fly.
…Right-handed pitcher Billy Lescher was in a walking boot Thursday. He has a sprained right ankle and is day-to-day.
The controlled scrimmages will continue at Joker Marchant Friday and Saturday, starting at 10:30 a.m.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky