The Detroit Tigers have won all four of their home series this season. They’ll try to add to that streak when they host the Baltimore Orioles in a three-game series that begins Friday night.
Detroit took two of three from San Diego to start this week, which included a 6-0 shutout on Wednesday afternoon.
“We feel really good right now, no matter what the lineup is or what the order is or who we put out there,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “We feel like we should win every series, whether it’s winning the first two games and going for the sweep or splitting the first two and having to win the finale. We have the right mentality. Not just based on the previous series, but based on a number of things over the last couple of years.”
Strong pitching has been the catalyst for the strong start. In 12 of their 25 games, the Tigers have held the opposition to three or fewer runs.
Right-hander Casey Mize (3-1, 2.22 ERA) will start the series opener for the Tigers. Hinch pushed back rookie Jackson Jobe in the rotation. Thursday’s off-day allows Mize to pitch with five days rest after his seven-inning outing against Kansas City on Saturday.
“It’s just to give Jackson, our youngest starter in his first full season, the majority of rest,” Hinch said. “But also continue to be aware of the workload of our other pitchers.”
Mize held the Royals to one run and four hits in his longest start in four seasons.
“He was really good,” said Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler. “And the best part was, he was landing pretty much all of his pitches. I know we used some more than others, but he had great control over all of his sliders and especially his four-seamer and split. He was able to keep them off-balance the whole game.”
Mize is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in two career starts against the Orioles.
Baltimore rookie right-hander Brandon Young will make his second major-league start Friday. Young made his debut in the Orioles’ 9-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday. He was optioned to Triple-A after that game, but recalled after Cody Poteet was placed on the injured list.
Young, 26, allowed three runs and seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts in four-plus innings.
“Pretty unreal. I had the expectations coming in, but blew them out of the water,” said Young, who underwent a pair of Tommy John surgeries before realizing his MLB aspirations. “Still hard to breathe. Can’t feel my legs. But that was awesome. Everything I’ve dreamed of.”
All of the hits off him came during the first two innings.
“I thought he was solid,” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. “The stuff was good. First start in the big leagues, that’s never easy. I thought he controlled his emotions well.”
Detroit will be the fresher team on Friday. While the Tigers were enjoying a day off, the Orioles pulled out a 2-1 victory Thursday night at Washington. Baltimore only had four hits, but it pushed across two runs in the fifth and its quartet of pitchers held the Nationals to five hits.
–Field Level Media
