Detroit, MI
Detroit Tigers prospect Jackson Jobe torched by Yankees in 8-6 loss in spring training
Jason Benetti on his iconic call during Detroit Tigers’ 2024 run
Jason Benetti, TV voice of the Detroit Tigers, breaks down the emotions and behind the scenes elements that helped lead to his memorable call.
LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost, 8-6, to the New York Yankees on Thursday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
Detroit is 9-9 in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
Right-hander Jackson Jobe is extremely confident in his abilities as a starting pitcher, as he revealed after his last start by making a bold statement: “Here’s my stuff. If you hit it, great. Odds are, you’re probably not.”
On Thursday, the New York Yankees hit his stuff.
They hit it hard.
The 22-year-old allowed three runs (two earned runs) on three hits and one walk with three strikeouts across 3⅔ innings, throwing 41 of 68 pitches for strikes. The Yankees averaged a 95.5 mph exit velocity on 11 balls in play, including eight balls in play that had at least a 100 mph exit velocity.
“I just gave up a couple homers,” Jobe said. “That’s all it is. I mean, it happens.”
The damage occurred in the fourth inning, when Jasson Domínguez pulled a middle-down 86.5 mph changeup for a two-run home run to right field and Paul Goldschmidt destroyed a middle-middle 96.6 mph sinker for a solo homer over the batter’s eye in center field.
Before Domínguez’s homer, Javier Báez — playing third base for the first time since 2019 — made a fielding error that allowed the leadoff hitter to reach safely.
The homer from Goldschmidt traveled 447 feet.
“Fastball command wasn’t great,” Jobe said, “but the pitches that they hit out of the yard were, I thought, decent pitches. Those are good hitters. Tip your cap.”
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Starting off
Not only did Jobe allow hard contact, but he also failed to miss bats at even an average clip.
Despite elite individual pitches, he generated just three misses on 28 swings — for a 10.7% whiff rate — with one fastball, one sinker and one sweeper. He has a 17.1% whiff rate in spring training, which is a little bit concerning because MLB pitchers averaged a 25.6% whiff rate from 2022-24.
Facing the Yankees, Jobe struggled to located his four-seam fastball.
“I think I threw a lot of uncompetitive fastballs, whether it was up or arm side,” said Jobe, whose fastball averaged 97.5 mph. “That’s something I’ll work on. Being able to get the heater down and follow up with offspeed down, I think that helps me. It all starts with the fastball.”
This spring, Jobe has a 3.65 ERA with four walks and eight strikeouts across 12⅓ innings in four starts. Although he is expected to make the Opening Day rotation, the Tigers haven’t guaranteed anything to him yet.
At the plate
The Tigers faced Yankees left-hander Max Fried, who signed an eight-year, $218 million free agent contract in the offseason — the largest contract ever for a southpaw. He allowed one run on one hit and zero walks with three strikeouts across four innings, throwing 57 pitches.
In the first inning, ex-Yankee Gleyber Torres — who signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Tigers this offseason — hit a solo home run off Fried’s 93.6 mph fastball.
It was Torres’ third homer of spring training.
The Tigers added one run in the fifth inning and two runs in the sixth inning. In the fifth, Colt Keith and Báez hit back-to-back doubles against right-handed reliever Fernando Cruz, with Báez ripping Cruz’s 93.5 mph sinker with a 109.3 mph exit velocity.
Both Torres and Keith had two-hit performances.
The Tigers tacked on two final runs in the bottom of the ninth as Yankees relievers Yerry De Los Santos and Hayden Merda had issues finding the strike zone; they issued four straight two-out walks (to Ryan Kreidler, Bligh Madris, Andrew Navigato and Roberto Campos) before Jace Jung flew out to end the game.
On the mound
After Jobe, the Tigers relievers struggled.
Left-hander Andrew Chafin allowed four runs on three hits and two walks with one strikeout in the fifth inning, throwing 26 pitches. His sinker velocity averaged less than 89 mph, down from last year’s 91.7 mph average.
This spring, Chafin has given up six runs on three hits and five walks in three relief appearances.
Right-hander Tommy Kahnle, a former Yankee, failed to complete the sixth inning, with one hit and two walks despite getting just two outs while exhausting 26 pitches. In the seventh, right-hander John Brebbia gave up one run but recorded three outs.
Three stars
1. Torres; 2. Keith; 3. Báez.
Next up
Friday (1:05 p.m., no TV) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
The Detroit Lions are starting to take care of their own ahead of free agency, and it begins with one of the easier decisions to make. According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, the Lions have tendered kicker Jake Bates an exclusive rights free agent offer. What that means is Bates now has a one-year contract offer at the minimum salary ($1,075,000 for Bates). He can choose to sign it or sit out the season.
The reason the Lions can offer this ERFA tender is because Bates’ contract is expiring after just two accrued seasons in the NFL. All players with fewer than three years of experience who are on expiring contracts could be offered these ERFA tenders. In fact, the Lions did so with three other ERFAs earlier this offseason, all of whom already signed the deals: OL Michael Niese, RB Jacob Saylors, and CB Nick Whiteside.
Bates is coming off a season where he took a step back after an outstanding 2024. After making 89.7% of his field goals in his first year with the Lions, Bates slid back to just 79.4% accuracy. That said, five of his seven misses all season were from 50+ yards, and he was a perfect 14-of-14 from 39 yards or shorter. Additionally, he increased his extra point accuracy from 95.5% to 96.4%. He also steadily improved at the new NFL kickoff, which requires a lot more precision from kickers to boot the ball as close to the goal line without going into the end zone.
It’s unclear if the Lions intend on bringing in competition for Bates this offseason, but special teams coordinator Dave Fipp made it abundantly clear all last season that they value Bates, despite some struggles in 2025.
“Clearly, we have a very, very good player,” Fipp said in December. “If you put him on the streets, there would be a bunch of teams claiming him right away. And the truth is, we’d have a really hard time finding a guy even near the same player as him.”
What questions have Pistons answered this season?
Friend of the pod Laz Jackson walks through what the Detroit Pistons have proved of themselves this year.
CLEVELAND – In just five days, the Detroit Pistons faced the Cleveland Cavaliers twice.
They split the games to finish their season series against the Central Division rivals, but with a potential reunion looming in the second round of the NBA playoffs, the Pistons came away from both games unsatisfied.
On Friday, it was the Pistons needing overtime to overcome a Cavaliers team missing James Harden and Donovan Mitchell at Little Caesars Arena. On Tuesday, March 3, in Cleveland, however – with Harden back in the lineup – the Pistons struggled in the areas they usually thrive, for a 113-109 loss.
The Pistons’ first loss on the road since Jan. 29 didn’t feature their usual fire for much of the night.
“I’m frustrated with the effort level, the attention to detail that we played on that end of the floor,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “The times and opportunities where we did do the right thing, did get stops, we let people outwork us to come up with offensive rebounds. We can’t afford to not play at maximum effort. That’s been our superpower all year long and, tonight, I felt like there were times where we were outworked. If we’re outworked, this isn’t going to be the results that we want.”
The Pistons work at being the league’s most disruptive team via turnovers has given them a top-three defensive rating. They force turnovers on 17.2% of possessions – best in the NBA –and only trail the Houston Rockets in offensive rebounding percentage. They also lead the league in steals and blocks per game. Getting out in transition and capitalizing on second-chance opportunities has created an above-average offense despite struggles on 3-point shooting.
For three quarters against the Cavaliers, little of that materialized – as least until the Pistons grabbed seven steals in the final period (after just two in the first three). Overall, the Pistons were beat on the offensive glass (11-10), mustered just 10 fastbreak points (their lowest total since Jan. 27) and picked up 11 second-chance points (their least since Feb. 6).
It was, in all, a lackadaisical defensive performance, with the Pistons repeatedly losing shooters behind the arc as the Cavs knocked down 17 3-pointers – eight more than the Pistons.
“Obviously they’re a good team, but we haven’t been playing to our standard on that side of the ball,” Pistons wing Javonte Green said. “Coach talked about the effort we need to bring every game. We just need to play harder. We can’t get outworked on offensive rebounds and 50-50 balls, that’s our identity. I feel like we needed to pick up that slack.”
The Pistons also were hurt by a poor shooting performance by Cade Cunningham; he finished with 10 points and 14 assists but shot 4-for-16. Cleveland threw multiple defenders at him all night, and he obliged by passing the ball and setting up his teammates. It led to a big second half for Tobias Harris, who scored all 19 of his points in the last two quarters.
But it wasn’t enough.
“On the defensive end we just couldn’t put up a wall, couldn’t get a stand going,” Cunningham said. “Personally, I had a lot of bad closeouts; just off the ball, I didn’t feel sharp. Just gotta clean all that stuff up.”
With 22 games remaining, the Pistons are focused on cleaning up the margins so they’ll be ready for postseason play. These two games against the Cavaliers have given them a list of areas to clean up.
Friday, they needed an extra period to win after rallying from a late nine-point deficit despite losing Cunningham late after he fouled out with just under two minutes left in the fourth quarter. Jalen Duren and Daniss Jenkins stepped up in overtime after Duncan Robinson also fouled out.
Mostly, the Cavaliers have proven they can pounce during soft stretches on defense. Thursday brings another rematch with a contender, as the Pistons wrap up a three-game road trip against the San Antonio Spurs (another opponent from last week).
“We didn’t play our best basketball the other night,” Bickerstaff said of the Cavaliers’ game on Feb. 27. “Give our guys credit because we played 53 minutes and were able to pull it out in some adverse conditions. Cade fouls out, Duncan fouls out, our guys still figure out a way to get it done.
“We need to be better. We need to be better defensively, we need to impose ourselves on the game a little bit more than we did last game. I thought the last two quarters of the Orlando game [on Sunday] were the best quarters we’ve played defensively since New York [on Feb. 19]. I hope, and told our guys, that we can continue to build off that, because that’s where it always starts for us. You can tell the tone by how we are defensively and how we’re getting after it.”
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky and/or X @omarisankofa.
[ MUST WATCH: Make “The Pistons Pulse” your go-to Pistons podcast, listen available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) or watch live on YouTube. ]
Next up: Spurs
Matchup: Pistons (45-15) at San Antonio (44-17).
Tipoff: 8 p.m. Thursday, March 5; Frost Bank Center, San Antonio.
TV/radio: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Detroit, MI
Police search for suspect, accomplice after teen injured in shooting outside Detroit school gym
The Detroit Police Department is searching for a suspect and an accomplice in connection with a shooting last week that injured a teen outside a school gym.
The shooting happened in the 3400 block of St. Aubin, the same area where the Detroit Edison Public School Academy’s Early College of Excellence is located. Police say that at about 8:27 p.m. on Feb. 27, there was an altercation inside the gym that continued outside.
Police say the suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at the victim, striking him. The teen was taken to a hospital for treatment. His current condition is unknown.
Police say the accomplice who was with the suspect was also armed.
Anyone with information is asked to call DPD’s seventh precinct at 313-596-5740, Crime Stoppers at 800-Speak Up or DetroitRewards.tv.
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