DETROIT — It’s seemed like a random decision — starting Casey Mize in the first game of the scheduled doubleheader Saturday and Wily Peralta in the second. Except Tigers manager AJ Hinch doesn’t do anything randomly.
There was rhyme and reason for it.
“You’re kind of trying to hit the forecast,” he said, meaning, if that only one game was going to be played around the rain, he wanted Mize to pitch it. “And Casey is very regimented. With the first game at 1 p.m., we should be able to start on time, and if we can get some innings out of him we’re set up for the second game to do whatever we want with the bullpen.”
That’s exactly how it played out. Mize, continuing a stretch of 11 straight strong starts, limited the Astros to a run over six innings and the Tigers evened the series with a 3-1, seven-inning victory.
Mize has allowed three runs or fewer in 11 straight starts, lowing his ERA to 2.75 over the last 10.
Another decision that was made before the game which seemed routine turned out to be anything but. Infielder Zack Short was called up from Toledo to be the 27th man for the double-header. Hinch started him at shortstop against left-handed Astros starter Framber Valdez.
Short, who doubled in the third inning, blasted a two-run, opposite-field home run to right field in the fifth that broke a 1-1 tie. It was his first big league home run and it came off a change-up. In the third, he hit a fastball from Valdez 396 feet to the wall in center.
With Niko Goodrum on the injured list and the Tigers struggling defensively at the shortstop position (minus-15 defensive runs saved entering Saturday), he may not be going directly back to Toledo.
“It could be for one day,” Hinch said of Short’s call-up before the game. “Who knows, it could be for longer.”
Not a random statement.
The Astros didn’t let Mize ease into this one, though. Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley both singled, hitting poorly-located sliders in two-strike counts. But Mize didn’t flinch.
First he struck out Yuli Gurriel looking 3-2 four-seam fastball after Mize missed with three straight sliders. Then he struck out Yordan Alvarez swinging at a 1-2 four-seamer (95 mph).
He escaped the inning making quick play off the mound to field a tapper and throwing out Carlos Correa.
And then somewhere in the third inning, he found his splitter. It’s been an inconsistent pitch for him most of the season, but he started dropping it to right-handed and left-handed hitters – befuddling the Astros hitters.
He used it to get Altuve and Brantley to ground out in the third and fifth innings. He threw three straight to strike out Alvarez.
He threw 21 splitters in his six innings, getting five whiffs on 11 swings and four called strikes. The five balls the Astros put in play against it were outs, with average exit velocity of a meek 74.8 mph.
Fittingly, he ended his outing striking out Chas McCormick looking at a splitter.
The lone run against him came in third, a two-out RBI single by Correa. Mize had him down in the count 1-2, but nibbled the edges with two straight sliders before Correa banged a four-seam fastball into left field.
Hinch called on former Astro Jose Cisnero to close it out. Which he did, winning long battles with Jason Castro (pop out) and Altuve (strikeout looking), and striking out Brantley on four pitches.
