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Detroit Tigers right-hander Casey Mize — the 2018 No. 1 overall pick — showcased the best performance of his five-year MLB career in his 63rd game.
And he could’ve been even better.
Mize guided the Tigers to a 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday in the second of three games in the series T-Mobile Park. He didn’t allow a run, pitching into the sixth inning, allowing just one hit, racking up six strikeouts and generating whiffs on more than 40% of swings.
The only negatives: Mize didn’t pitch deeper into the game, and he walked three batters. That’s why he looked disappointed when he trotted to the dugout with two outs in the sixth inning, after manager A.J. Hinch took the ball.
But the Tigers (2-3) benefitted from Mize’s dominance in his 82-pitch outing, blanking the Mariners’ offense until right-handed reliever Beau Brieske gave up a run in the seventh inning. Later on, right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle picked up his first save with a scoreless ninth inning.
The Mariners’ only hit off the Tigers came on a leadoff single from Victor Robles against Mize in the first inning. One out later, Mize issued a four-pitch walk to Cal Raleigh. From there, he settled in, retiring 14 batters in a row before issuing a leadoff walk to J.P. Crawford in the sixth.
In the first, Mize stranded two runners in scoring position when he struck out Luke Raley swinging with a splitter at the bottom of the strike zone.
It was the lone threat from the Mariners.
Mize generated 15 whiffs on 35 swings, posting a 42.8% whiff rate with five fastballs, four sliders, five splitters, and one sinker. His splitter was especially effective — hitters swung at it seven times and missed it five times.
For reference, Mize had a 22% whiff rate last season that ranked in the 21st percentile among MLB pitchers.
Now, he’s finally missing more bats.
And he’s doing it at an elite rate.
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Facing Logan Gilbert
Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert finished sixth in American League Cy Young voting for his performance in the 2024 season, leading all MLB pitchers with 208⅔ innings.
The Tigers’ offense limited him to just five innings.
In the first inning, hits from three left-handed hitters produced a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead: Riley Greene pulled a double, Kerry Carpenter smoked a ground-ball RBI single, and Colt Keith flared an opposite-field RBI single
Gilbert bounced back and struck out double-digit batters for the sixth time in his 123-game MLB career, which spans five seasons. However, the early damage still put a dent in his performance. He allowed three runs on five hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts across five innings, throwing 92 pitches.
Spencer Torkelson strikes again
The third run off Gilbert came in the third inning.
Spencer Torkelson — the 2020 No. 1 overall pick — slapped a 95.8 mph fastball into the right-field corner for an RBI double, extending the Tigers’ lead to 3-0.
Torkelson finished 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
He is hitting .389 with one home run, five walks, seven strikeouts and a 1.189 OPS throughout five games to start the 2025 season, through four of those walks occurred in one game.
In the eighth inning, Riley Greene hit a solo home run against right-handed reliever Trent Thornton, skying a middle-middle slider over the wall in left-center field.
It was Greene’s second homer in five games.
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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