WASTED: Detroit Tigers Blow Late Lead as Casey Mize SHINES, Bullpen COLLAPSES vs Diamondbacks

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The Tigers waste an absolute gem from Casey Meijs, and hopefully we get, you know, all

those out of the way early.

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Welcome back to another edition.

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Unfortunately, not in April Fool's joke, the Detroit Tigers blow the game late on Tuesday

night heading into early Wednesday morning over in Arizona.

They lose seven to five to the Diamondbacks.

The Tigers are now under 500 after starting off two and a half.

They have lost three straight and are two and three on the season.

The Diamondbacks, as to a testament to how quickly things can change, started off

0 and 3 and now are two and three as well.

First thought was, well, that was unbelievably stupid.

They wasted an absolutely phenomenal start from Casey Mies and with Scoobal going on Wednesday,

you also ruined your chance at a back to back series win to start off the season.

You were in prime position.

You hold onto that game.

You got Scoobal going game three, then an off day Thursday and the home opener against

the bad Cardinals team this weekend.

You would have had a lot of momentum kind of going into that game and like five runs

isn't a bad day at the office, but I think there's other ways to look at it that

probably are a little more pessimistic rightfully so like they were still shut out for eight

innings and they're two best relievers at least like the guys that have the two most high

leverage roles on the team were responsible for blowing the game.

So all of that, not how you drew it up, let's start with what went wrong as we do when

the Tigers lose.

I do want to start with the bullpen because I think that's probably the biggest talking

point here.

For as much as I will criticize the offense, you know, at the end of the day, five runs

wins you a lot of games and they had to lead late and that is the thing with, I mean starting

from just like the Diamondbacks perspective, like that's what their lineup can do and

will do for a lot of the year.

They're just never out of it.

It's really potent and dynamic offense with a lot of athleticism and a lot of good hitters

on it.

They can put up runs in a hurry, no matter what your bullpen looks like and really at any

given moment.

I anticipate that that will be kind of a theme throughout the year.

The Tigers relied on as I already had mentioned arguably there are two best relievers and got

smacked.

That can't happen.

I don't care who the opponent is, right?

That cannot happen.

Those are your two highest leverage guys.

They will be presumably throughout the year.

If you want to be a good baseball team, you need relievers you can trust against good

lineups.

That's like the whole point.

That's the entire point of being a good high leverage reliever is being able to get three

outs, four outs at the end of a game in close games against good teams.

And if that is a theme, which it's happened once, I'm not saying it's a theme right now,

we are five games into the season.

If that is to be a theme, then I mean this bullpen is going to be in absolute shambles

very quickly.

So it's not something I'm expecting to happen or expecting to continue deep into the season.

I think they ultimately figured it out and I think it's a talented back end.

But if this is a glimpse into the future, I don't think it is.

But if it is, then yeah, they're toast and their bullpen is going to get really shallow

really quickly.

So something that needs to get addressed obviously and needs to be righted.

Through Anderson, also not free of criticism here.

One plus innings, two hits, two earn runs, no walks, and two strikeouts.

I thought his first inning was sensational to us with you like that is the word I'd

use.

I, you know, oral was was oozing through the screen as I was watching.

I was very impressed with his first inning of work.

The change up was really good.

He had two strikeouts off it.

I was getting, you know, a swing and miss.

And like again, you see the stuff and I think there's a solid reliever there.

I, I also think that the usage right in a for run game where you don't necessarily for

five, whatever it was at that moment, you don't necessarily for, you don't really want

to use all of your high leverage guys all in a row, but in the same breath like you,

you still need to make sure the other team doesn't get back in it.

I think that's probably the perfect case for Drew Anderson to come in.

You can give you multiple innings, save your pen a little bit.

You can still go to Vester, Kenley late, but you gave up a couple of knocks in his second

inning of work.

And, and that's all she wrote disappointing end, the command really just like kind of went

away.

He started throwing change ups in the zone, which is always a no-no curve ball in the zone

as well.

And, and yeah, that secondary stuff starts hitting the bottom rail there.

It's going to, well, it's going to get hit.

And that's really what we saw on this one.

No vast.

Two thirds of an inning, one hit, three earned runs, two walks, no strikeouts.

This one's very simple.

It's not a very long conversation.

He had absolutely no idea where the baseball was going, zero command.

You go rewatch the outing or you like just watched it live.

He was all over the place and, and pretty much anything that wasn't a fast ball was

a foot outside of the strike zone except for the hanging slider to a lefty as a right-handed

pitcher in, in, in Corbin Carroll, no less.

That obviously was a, a big moment in the game.

And then Kenley, I mean, throws, you know, a third of an inning with one strikeout, but

gave up the three run homer.

Uh, there's really not much to break down here either.

He threw a horrible pitch.

Tip of the cap to Fernandez, that's, you know, debut, uh, major league debut hit in

two homers.

You can do a lot worse than that.

So, uh, awesome moment for that young man and, uh, a guy that a lot of people are really

excited about rightfully so very athletic, very good swing, very fast swing as well, quick

hands.

But that was a terrible pitch.

That was, uh, that was a, a, a, a meatball of meatballs.

That was a cutter that did not cut and was middle, middle.

I, I don't care who you are or what your major league experience is.

That's getting hit very hard and very far most of the time.

So there you go.

Like, again, there's not too much to break down.

They were just not good.

I think on the offensive side of the ball, it's also, as I kind of mentioned, the cold

open a little bit really fair to point out that the offense, despite putting up five

runs was shut out for eight innings.

And look, man, like hitting is hard and, and scoring is, is, uh, a rarity, right?

It's, it's, uh, it's a difficult thing to do, especially in bunches and especially,

you know, over five runs in a game.

That's a, uh, all things considered.

You look at a five run game total.

That's a good day at the office.

That's going to win you a lot of games and, and they deserve credit for that.

But you, you, you cannot roll over and just stop scoring and be completely uncompetitive

after the third inning, either, especially against the team.

And I know I'm a broken record with this, like the diamond backs that is all offense.

And that park that is, you know, just creates offense.

You weren't up 15, you were up four.

You cannot do that against a team that can score runs as quickly and as easily as that

diamond backs team.

You can't do that purely over the course of a season.

You can't just score early and then try to hold on every game.

Jason Beck of MLB.com pointed out a, a great stat where he said all of their runs, the

Tigers, all of their runs in the last four games were five games into the year, mind

you. All of their runs in their last four games have come in three innings.

Now they got shut out across an entire game in that span.

So certainly that alters that statistic, but still three innings of scoring in their

last four games, even if they are relatively crooked numbers that they did put up in those

innings.

I think one of the big reasons for that is a lack of power so far this season.

And like, I'm going to say this a lot early in the year, like this is still March baseball.

We are five games in, Torkelson's going to Homer eventually, Riley Greene hit, you

know, pushed 40 last year.

He's going to Homer at some point, right?

McGonigal is not going to end his rookie campaign with zero homers, Colt Keith, as good

of a start as he's had is going to lift the ball at some point, like that, that's not

necessarily something that like, oh, well, they didn't have like one Homer so far, so

like whatever.

But that is a factor.

If they go through stretches where they are not produced, they are not hitting the ball

out of the park on a consistent basis, you're going to have stretches like this where,

okay, well, the offense put up three, four runs in this game, but they were still shut

out through eight and struck out a bunch.

They didn't actually strike out a lot on Tuesday night to be fair, but like that's been a

theme this season too.

You can't have both in the modern age of baseball.

You can't strike out a lot and not hit homers.

You can not strike out and not be like a huge home running team and put the ball in play

a lot and get your runs that way, or you can strike out a lot because you're selling

out for power and that's how you get your runs.

You can't do neither or both, I guess, whichever way you're looking at it.

Okay, got a few more things I want to talk about, obviously, on the offensive side of the

ball, then we'll get into what went right and preview the finale as well.

Lou, all of that right up to this.

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The Tigers lose seven to five to the Arizona Diamondbacks, yeah, man, snakes alive, right?

That is, Ben, they have had the ability to put up runs at any point late in game, early

in game, whatever, really for this entire like Diamondbacks era, right, since the year

they made the World Series.

So, I guess similar conversation as before the break, like you can't have your bullpen

give up runs late and have your offense completely roll over and stop producing after

the third inning.

You do one or the other and still win a lot of games.

You can't do both.

We talked about the offense a little bit before the break there and just kind of the inability

to score after that third inning.

I think Torkelson still kind of fighting it at the plate early in the year.

A lot of like spin low and away, especially when a righty is on the mound that he just

is swinging at, pretty much non-stop early in the season, Zach McKinster, also some

pretty darn uncompetitive at bats in this ball game.

And yeah, I mean, the fact that fought was able to go six innings just period is extremely

frustrating.

He had three shut out innings after the five run set, like that is unbelievably frustrating.

You look like I don't think the approach was awful.

The Tigers were putting the ball in play, like fought, didn't have a ton of swing and

miss stuff in this game really at all.

But there were no legitimate threats of scoring after the third inning.

The Tigers did really well with runners in scoring position because they got them all

in scoring position and won inning.

Just can't happen.

It can't happen consistently.

It can't happen over the course of a summer.

So hopefully it doesn't.

What went right?

I mean, the biggest story of this game from a positive perspective is easily casey mice.

Six innings, four hits, one urn run, two walks, nine strikeouts.

And the one urn run was just the solo home run against.

He will enter his next start with a one five ERA on the year.

Absolutely incredible, man.

I think I took it on the chin from a lot of people all spring had idiots like me and a lot

of people that are much smarter than me even say that like, you know, there's concerns

about what he does this year.

And I mean, I remember saying on here that there were concerns about like how long of a

leash he had and what he make it even two, three months into the season.

And he put together the best outing by a tiger starter, you know, the first time through

the rotation on the season.

That is, I love that.

It's one of my favorite things in this like role, right, is saying or, I don't know,

like highlighting maybe like concerns or struggles that a player has.

And then that player just turning around and absolutely shoving it in your face is one

of the best feelings ever.

And like that's just that's a that's a that's a mentality.

And like, obviously, he like, I'm not saying that Casey Myers cares or even thinks about

or knows who I am.

I'm saying like that this was not just me, right, like the general fan base and all of

the media were really kind of like poking at this dude all spring with his struggles.

And for him to go out there and let out that scream at the end of the outing and put together

a phenomenal performance and just give a middle finger kind of to like anybody who doubted

him early is just so awesome.

I absolutely love it.

It's one of my favorite things.

So good for him.

I'm so happy for him.

And I hope he keeps doing it all year, 15 whiffs.

The most by a tiger so far this season nine strikeouts.

The most by a tiger so far this season.

I mean, even just like six innings pitched is a number that, you know, not a ton of the

starters have hit up to this point.

So the biggest factor here from an in game perspective was obviously the splitter.

If you watch that you're aware at phenomenal pitch was a strike almost 40% of the time,

excluding foul balls, right, called strikes whiff.

So we talk about that.

That's that all the time.

It was with that nine times swung on and missed nine times.

It was swung on period 17 times that is over a 50% with rate for the game, which is

absolutely incredible in the zone was getting swing and miss even out of the zone.

Obviously as it is supposed to getting a lot of swing and miss, but it also then open

the door for the fastball low because you're kind of just guessing on which pitch it is.

But it's just we talked about this all the time last year.

The splitter for him is, it is, he is a completely different pitcher when that pitch is working

versus when it's not it's it's kind of remarkable and fascinating how much one singular pitch

can change the caliber of pitcher that he is.

But it's it's really true.

I mean, he is completely different when that thing looks like it did in this ball game.

I think the overlooked thing about this outing will be the slider.

He only had one whiff on it to be honest and he hung one really badly to to Fernandez

for his first home run of the evening and that ball still has not landed.

That was not a good pitch and was absolutely destroyed.

But he got a ton of cold strikes on the slider.

I think that is such an important development if that's something that he can maintain, right?

Like to have a pitch that isn't elite, it's it's never going to be a plus plus pitch.

It's never going to be a pitch that gets a ton of swing and miss at the major league level

at least.

But to have a pitch that can buckle some knees and get some cold strikes low on a way to

the righties, especially when everyone is sitting righty or lefty on fastball or splitter.

I think is a great kind of keep you off balance type of pitch and this outing really shows

that.

I also think that the sinker to righties and the inner half of the plate was was chef's

kiss was absolutely beautiful.

And I hope that it utilizes that a lot more because I think that that it's never going

to get a lot of swing and miss either.

But it can jam hitters and the difference in that speed that you need to be able to catch

up to a sinker in on your hands as a righty from a righty versus then being able to make

contact even follow off a splitter low on a way as a righty is astronomical.

So I think that even if you can just establish that pitch again to keep people honest, he

can he can really kind of open up the door for everything else in his repertoire.

So there's been a lot of questions obviously rightfully so I think about the three through

five in the rotation.

If mice can make these types of performances, even remotely consistently, that would obviously

go a really long way.

What else went right?

I mean, I guess like the one inning they scored, we can talk about that right after this.

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All right, everybody.

Welcome back here.

Third and final segment.

Flocked on Tigers.

Appreciate you all for tuning in as always finishing up just what went right in this game.

Five runs again.

Going to win you a lot of games did not in this one.

I mean, I'm glad that they were still able to a guy that has a career ERA over five like

they were able to tag him for even if it was just an inning.

And again, like even I mean outside of that they didn't get results, but they put the ball

in play the entire out like they were they did not swing and miss a lot.

They were not getting a ton of strikeouts against them with fought at least.

Like they they were able to put the ball in play and just couldn't get anything going.

That inning obviously kind of starts with the Parker Meadows infield single that he

beats out and they just kept the line moving after that.

Jake Rodgers with a great at bat drives the ball deep into that outfield gap.

Keith with a nice piece of hitting Kevin McGonigal with an infield hit kind of a testament

to his speed being a difference maker yet again, something that was really talked about

when he was coming up through the system.

So that's all some Riley green, beautiful piece of hitting on a fastball up and in got

up to fastballs up and in fouled off the first one and then corrected the timing and was

able to deposit the other one into the right center field gap there for a two RBI hit.

So that was good.

Kerry Carpenter.

You know, not a game that you're going to look at and be like, wow, this is one of the

greatest performances ever, but had a hit and a walk, which will gladly take.

He moves down in the lineup is not hitting lead off and yeah, it's a it's a big hit

that drove in a run gets a walk later on an ABS challenge.

I mean, the challenge was like less than one tenth of an inch or whatever, you know,

away from being a strike, but I don't feel bad about that one because he actually did

get screwed out of a pitch earlier in that same at bat.

There was a ball that was clearly out of the zone that he did not challenge that was

a ball and called a strike.

So kind of just, you know, whatever.

Yeah, like again, I don't think the team approach was terrible, but the results obviously

were and I do think the approach against Paul C. Walden, the bullpen actually was terrible.

They can they can get criticized for that until, you know, the sun comes up, but I

Paul C. What we saw him firsthand last year, he was a tiger and he looked like prime

Mariana Rivera in the ninth inning.

So that, yeah, frustrating, frustrating, very frustrating second half of this ball game

for a first half that was really exciting on both sides of the ball too.

Great pitching, great offense in the first half, terrible pitching, terrible offense in

the second half.

Stuff, we saw some defensive switches late, which I think is something to note and kind

of keep an eye out for, Colt Keith takes his last at bat and then McKinstree moves into

third and Matt Beerling moves into right field.

I think when they have a lead, they'll probably do that a lot this year, just because they

have the bench depth and they have some solid defenders that might not be in the lineup

every day.

So something that I thought was interesting to keep an eye out for.

So we're like pack 12 after dark stuff.

We had the lights go out in the middle of Colt Keith's at bat in the first inning.

We had the pitch calm go out and the bottom of the first inning like it's, I don't know,

weird stuff always seems to happen out on the West Coast when East Coast teams go out

there and play.

I mentioned the lineup shake up.

We had Colt Keith leading off, which he was fine.

Kevin McGonagall batting second, which I think is very interesting already.

Glaver Tora is batting third.

Then Green Carpenter and Tork were your four five six.

So I think that this is more of a testament to the difference in the Tigers lineup.

If Keith and McGonagall produce this year versus not, right?

And that's not to say that it's completely on two guys' shoulders.

But your lineup gets significantly deeper with those two guys producing.

Because if they don't, then it's okay, like you just put Glaver at the top of the lineup

and you just have Green Carpenter and Tork kind of right behind him and you just hope

that the top half of your lineup can put up some runs.

If Colt Keith stays hot and Kevin McGonagall stays looking like he has so far this year,

then you become a lineup.

And I know Carpenter and Tork haven't had a good start to the year.

I watch every game, I promise, I'm aware.

But it's just like over the course of 162 that should be something that makes your lineup

better.

Tigers had two ABS challenge wins by hitters that both led to walks.

So that was kind of nice to see.

And yeah, I mean, this is a really crappy loss.

Like this is, it was a really important win.

I thought for a few reasons, one is fought is just not a very effective MLB reliever.

You got to take advantage of those when you can get them.

You know that, again, like you're going to win a lot with your first two in the rotation.

So any win you can get with that three through five are going to be really important games.

And as I mentioned at the top of the show, you had school, you have still, school going

in the finale and, you know, kind of pissed away a chance at getting a series win there.

So I also think, again, like I'm not like losing my mind here.

We are five games in.

Every starter has pitched one time.

Like Joey Weemer has a 615 batting average.

Paul Schien's ERA is like 65, Josh Naylor, at least at the time of this record.

I don't think has recorded a hit yet on the year.

Like we are there.

We have not even played a game in April yet.

When you look at at the end of the season, like, oh, what were their month to month splits?

We haven't even gotten to April splits, which are literally the first ones.

There's a lot of games left.

They're going to lose more series this year.

They're going to blow games this year, the bullpen is going to give up home runs in the

eighth or ninth inning and lose games this year at some point again this year as well.

Go salvage the series, come home with a win.

You face a bad cardinals team and a bad twins team for the next seven games after that.

Previewing this finale though, first things first, Eric Scouple against Zach Galen.

Galen went four innings against the Dodgers on opening day.

Kind of a testament to the shallowness of this pitching staff.

Galen was signed within days of pitchers and catchers reporting and to a one year deal.

And is their opening day starter.

He was kind of solid the first three innings and then kind of the wheels fell off there

at the end.

He gave a big home run as well, hung a curveball in that game.

That was a really intriguing and fun game to watch, actually.

But yeah, only two strikeouts now, that's like a Dodgers lineup.

So kind of take that with a grain of salt too.

But yeah, I mean, he's their opening day starter and he had a 483 ERA last year.

Pretty middle of the road, strikeout numbers, middle of the road, walk numbers, average

ground ball numbers, average width numbers.

Like pretty, you know, middle of the road, give up a lot of hard contact, give up a handful

of home runs at an ERA that pushed five.

Like the one thing he had going for last year was the change up was really good.

It was whiffed at a lot and when it was hit, it was not hit very hard.

The lineup for Detroit is kind of an interesting conversation to me.

I do wonder if this is an instance where they don't mind putting in some more righties

against Galen, even though he is a righty.

He wouldn't throw the change up to righties, so you kind of eliminate that pitch from the

repertoire.

On opening day against righties, he was pretty much a two-pitch pitcher.

It was just fastball slider and neither of those pitches are particularly special at this

point in his career at least.

But last year, I mean, he did throw a curveball as well to righties.

So maybe he utilizes that a little bit more in the second start, but he went away from

that on opening day, which I thought was interesting.

Yeah, like last year, lefties hit him better than righties, which kind of makes sense for

righties.

But in 2024, righties actually hit him better than lefties.

So I'm interested to see like Harvey, for instance, is, I think he's five for ten with

a home run against Galen in his career, so wouldn't be shocking if we saw him.

And then yeah, from schoolable perspective, like go do normal schoolable things.

Hopefully that he, you know, has the advantage against Corbin Carroll, but this is a Diamond

Dex lineup that has a lot of good right-handed hitters and two of their best hitters are

switch hitters that have like pretty even splits or if anything are better against lefties.

So that's Marte and Predomo, obviously.

So yeah, still a really good lineup.

You're not getting really too much of an advantage there aside from just the fact that you

have the best pitch on the planet going.

So yeah, like you should be the favorites in this game, I think.

But you need to put up a solid run total.

And hopefully you can do that and salvage a win, avoid the sweep and then come home on

on a, well, a high note.

Thanks for being locked on Tigers.

You're first listen every single day shots that every day is the due tune in every day.

And we will of course be back tomorrow recapping that series finale.

Peace and love going to Thierry's dope.

I'll talk to you all then, baby.

Go Tigers.