Almost all of the damage occurred in the third inning.

The Detroit Tigers had won each of the first five starts from right-hander Casey Mize this season, but the Mize-led winning streak came to a halt in Saturday’s game against the New York Yankees.

A mistake to Anthony Rizzo, who hammered a middle-in fastball for a three-run home run, with two outs in the third inning came back to bite Mize and the Tigers. The Tigers lost, 5-3, to the Yankees in the second of three games in the series at Yankee Stadium.

“The two-out execution will be frustrating for him,” manager A.J. Hinch told reporters in New York, “because he was close to being out of innings. He just had a hard time ending two big innings that they scored in. Other than that, I thought he was quite effective.”

FIRST GAME OF THE SERIES: Missed scoring opportunities cost Tigers in 2-1 loss to Yankees

The homer from Rizzo put the Yankees ahead, 5-1, to cap a four-run third inning. Mize battled into the sixth inning in his sixth start, but he finished with five runs allowed on nine hits and one walk with six strikeouts across 5⅓ innings, throwing 93 pitches.

The Tigers (18-15) have dropped back-to-back games to open their three-game series in New York, part of a six-game road trip.

The four-run third began when Mize walked Anthony Volpe, the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, on six pitches. The next batter, Juan Soto, hit a splitter for a ground-ball single underneath the glove of diving first baseman Spencer Torkelson.

And then Aaron Judge — the 2022 American League MVP — turned on an up-and-in splitter for an RBI double. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead on Judge’s double and never looked backs.

Mize was nearly out of the third after picking up two outs and then throwing a first-pitch strike to Rizzo. He needed just two more strikes to strand the bases loaded, but Rizzo hit a 95.3 mph fastball on the inside of the plate for a 411-foot three-run home run, making it 5-1.

The Yankees scored their first run in the first inning on Giancarlo Stanton’s RBI single with two outs, tying the game at one run apiece. Mize allowed three singles in a row with two outs in the first before stranding runners on the corners.

The good news for Mize is that he struck out six batters.

He generated 14 whiffs on 51 swings — a 27.5% whiff rate — with seven fastballs, one slider and six splitters. His splitter had a 55% whiff rate in his sixth start, up from 34.8% in his first five starts.

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Riley Greene rakes

The Tigers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

It was all Riley Greene.

Greene, the leadoff hitter, refused to swing at two pitches outside of the strike zone from right-hander Clarke Schmidt to work ahead in the count. He hammered a third-pitch cutter — located down and in — for a solo home run to right field. It was no short-porch shot in Yankee Stadium, however, as Greene hit the ball 360 feet with a 101.4 mph exit velocity.

INJURED: Tigers pitching prospect Jackson Jobe placed on injured list with hamstring strain

Greene, hitting .276 with a .953 OPS, has eight home runs in 34 games this season, putting him on pace for 38 homers. As for Saturday’s game, Greene finished 1-for-3 with two strikeouts and one hit-by-pitch.

Two other runs

The Tigers scored their other two runs in the fourth inning.

The two-run inning began with Wenceel Pérez’s line-drive single in a full count. He scored from first base on Matt Vierling’s triple off Schmidt’s two-strike sinker on the inside part of the plate.

The triple from Vierling made it 5-2. The Tigers tacked on their third and final run of the game — cutting the deficit to 5-3 — when Colt Keith hit a sacrifice fly to right field.

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Schmidt allowed three runs on four hits and zero walks with seven strikeouts in five innings, throwing 91 pitches. Right-handed reliever Luke Weaver also played a key role in the win for the Yankees, as he covered 2⅓ scoreless innings with four strikeouts.

Torkelson, hitting .205 without any home runs in 31 games, worked out of the seventh spot in the lineup for the first time since the 2022 season, falling all the way from the two-hole on Opening Day.

Torkelson went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Saturday’s loss. He grounded into a double play on the first pitch of his at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, destroying any chance of the Tigers coming back against right-handed reliever Clay Holmes.

“If anybody goes through it this way and is not frustrated, then they don’t have a pulse,” Hinch said of Torkelson. “This has been a tough time for him. We know it. We’re supporting him. He’s got to fight his way out of it, and he will.”

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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In year three of the general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell’s regime, the Detroit Lions proved they had built themselves into a true Super Bowl contender. Entering year four, confidence remains high, as the team continues to add depth to the roster and address team weaknesses.

Their rapid ascension is largely credited with Holmes and Campbell’s aggressiveness, both on the playing field and in the draft. Holmes has attacked each draft with his own unique flair and it’s resulted in tremendous success. Not only has Holmes retained 28 of his 29 draft picks—including the 2024 class—but he has also drafted five Pro Bowlers and three All Pros.

In 2024, the consensus boards and analysts determined the Lions to have selected the most valuable draft class, writers placed them amongst their top 10 grades lists, and draft guru Dane Brugler of The Athletic tabbed the Lions as his third favorite draft class.

So when it came time to ask Lions fans if Detroit were considered “winners” or “losers’ of the 2024 NFL Draft (something every SB Nation site asked their fan base), the results were unsurprising:

You can’t please everybody, but when 96% of the fan base thinks you belong amongst the draft “winners,” the Lions should be happy with their results.

Let’s take a look at a few explanations from some of Pride of Detroit’s readers from the comment section of the original article. Note: some responses are lightly edited for ease of reading.

• LionsFaninCarolina: “Winners before, during, and after the draft. LFG.”
• UlyssesNorris80: “If someone were to tell me before the draft that the Lions would come away with both Terrion Arnold AND Ennis Rakestraw Jr. I certainly would not have believed it. So yeah, I would say definite winners.”
• Singledigit: “At this point? It’s hard to see how anyone could predict Mr. Holmes did not have a good draft. Even if one disagreed with his picks. Mr. Holmes has continually shown expertise in finding good-to-star NFL talent.”

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