CINCINNATI — Detroit Tigers rookie Casey Mize walked down the dugout steps and received a handshake from manager AJ Hinch.
The 24-year-old had a perfect game through three innings, but his manager didn’t let him return to the mound for the fourth. Just as he was in early July, Mize is back to a limited workload — no more than roughly three innings — for the remainder of the 2021 season. The Tigers want to protect the health of his prized right arm during his first full MLB season.
Mize should finish the year somewhere around 150 innings.
“There was no thought for sending him back out for the fourth,” Hinch said. “This will be Casey’s plan moving forward. Maybe I go a little shorter. I don’t know if there’s a free inning at the back of these games, but going into this game, we knew exactly that he was going to get nine outs.
Even without their best pitcher, the Tigers beat the Cincinnati Reds for a 4-1 victory in Sunday’s series finale at Great American Ball Park. Mize now has a 3.51 ERA, 39 walks and 106 strikeouts over 138⅓ innings.
Winning two of three games in series, the Tigers (65-73) are 56-49 since May 8 and 25-22 since the All-Star Break.
“I’m definitely glad to walk out of here with a series win,” Mize said. “That’s always a good feeling. I’m looking forward to carrying that over into Pittsburgh. … I think finding different ways to win is definitely going to be beneficial, not only for next season but for the rest of this month.
The three perfect innings began with a sharp first frame, inducing groundouts against Jonathan India, Tyler Naquin and Nick Castellanos. Of his seven pitches, all of them went for strikes. He recorded three groundouts, four flyouts and two strikeouts for his nine outs.
“Casey has to be one of the best, most efficient short-start guys in history,” Hinch said. “Every time we do this with him, he seems to throw under 30 pitches or barely over 30 pitches through his three innings. Maybe he’ll take something from that into the outings when we stretch him back out.”
In the second, Mize retired Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas and Kyle Farmer on 17 pitches. He struck out Moustakas with a slider to win an eight-pitch battle over the 11-year MLB veteran. Mize then tossed 10 pitches for the third frame, sending down Tucker Barnhart, Max Schrock and Luis Castillo.
Mize struck out Castillo — Cincinnati’s starting pitcher — to conclude his outing. For his 26th start this season and the 33rd of his big-league career, he tossed 27 of 34 pitches for strikes and produced a pair of strikeouts.
“They’ve been very transparent,” Mize said. “They’ve planned this out, and the goal all along is to get to the finish line. We’re at a point now where we got to do this to make that happen. I’m just wasting everybody’s time if I’m sitting there fighting for it. It’s not easy for any of us to do, but it’s the plan. It’s what we have to execute to get me to the finish line instead of shutting me down. So I’m OK with it.”
Clutch Candelario
Stuck in a scoreless game, the Tigers threatened Castillo for the first time in the sixth inning. Akil Baddoo led off with a double to left field, and although Jonathan Schoop lined out, Robbie Grossman took advantage of a defensive mistake.
A fielding error by Votto at first base put runners on the corners. Grossman stole second base, giving him 16 steals this season to go with 21 home runs, to advance two runners into scoring position for Jeimer Candelario.
And Candelario delivered.
“The best version of us has been a pressure team,” Hinch said, “where we have speed, balls in play and we’re moving guys and we’re stealing a couple bases here or there. We put a lot of pressure on the other side. You got to get on base to utilize that speed.”
