Detroit, MI
Justyn-Henry Malloy, Max Clark collide in Detroit Tigers’ 4-2 loss in Grapefruit finale
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost, 4-2, to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday in their final Grapefruit League game.
Detroit ended with a 12-13 record in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
The big scare happened in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Justyn-Henry Malloy, who was playing left field and is fighting to make this roster, collided with centerfielder Max Clark, the Tigers’ highly touted prospect.
Both players stayed on the grass for some time. After medical personnel and manager A.J. Hinch rushed out to the outfield, Malloy walked off the field and Clark stayed in the game.
As the ball rested in the outfield — and no other fielders around — Bryson Stott went slowly around the bases for a two-run inside-the-park homer.
Malloy was replaced by Jahmai Jones, who is also fighting for one of the last spots on the roster; Jones later homered.
Get away
The Tigers kicked off a wild few days.
Early Sunday morning, they bussed west from Lakeland to Clearwater to play the Phillies, then planned to hop on a plane to fly to San Francisco for a couple of exhibition games.
So, this Sunday get-away before the get-away game featured just enough big leaguers to appease MLB rules — you have to bring a certain number of MLB players to an away spring training game — but plenty of playing time was taken up by prospects.
On the mound
Right-hander Reese Olson made his fourth start of Grapefruit League play (and his fifth outing overall when including a simulated game on March 11).
He threw 5⅓ innings, allowing four hits and two runs. He struck out three with two walks.
What has Hinch seen from Olson this spring?
“I’ve just seen him healthy,” Hinch said. “He’s very consistent. His personality is really easy to deal with every day. He has the kind of the workman’s mentality where he just brings the lunchpail to work, and he’s understated, which is what leads him to be a little under-appreciated.”
Olson is coming off a strange season Last year, Olson had a 3.18 ERA in five starts in April, but the Tigers struggled, and he had a 0-4 record. But he posted a 0.64 ERA in five starts in May
“I think his first half last year was better than it was ever talked about,” Hinch said. “And then the first start afterwards he gets hurt.”
But he pitched in the postseason.
“By the time people caught up that he was pretty damn good, he was inactive,” Hinch said. “He’s a continuous learner. He will tweak a lot of things, but I never have to worry about getting him getting too high or too low.”
At the plate
Infielder Kevin McGonigle, another of the Tigers top prospects, started at shortstop. He doesn’t seem fazed by big leaguers.
He hit a homer to right field off Aaron Nola, who received Cy Young votes in three of the last five years.
Spencer Torkelson, who is also fighting to make this club, went 2-for-3, finishing his spring training with a noteworthy .326 average.
On to San Francisco
The Tigers planned to leave for San Francisco immediately after this game.
And they will bring a group of minor leaguers as a taxi squad.
They will play Monday night, bringing back “pitching chaos.” No, kidding.
“We’re doing a bullpen game, everyone’s favorite, on Monday,” Hinch said, smiling. “Nine relievers, my dream scenario.”
And Casey Mize and Jackson Jobe are expected to pitch in Tuesday’s game.
Part of it is to get to the West Coast and adjust to the time change. But it’s more than that.
“I just think it’s good to do something different on your way to to Opening Day, if you can,” Hinch said. “It gives us a couple days to just everything changes. Everything. Everybody’s in a good mood today that you know is traveling. Everybody, there’s just a little more energy.”
Some players, such as relievers Tyler Owens and Chase Lee, are making the trip just so they can experience travel with the big-league club, knowing they might be needed at some point this season.
“So, their first time with us will not be quite as intimidating,” Hinch said.
Three stars
1. McGonigle; 2. Olson; 3. Torkelson.
Next up: Giants
Monday (9:45 p.m., no TV) vs. San Francisco in an exhibition game at Oracle Park.
TRENDING: Jackson Jobe and Casey Mize have made Tigers starting pitching rotation
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.
Detroit Tigers blow lead, lose to Kansas City Royals on walk-off hit.
The Tigers lost, 4-3, to the Royals on Kyle Isbel’s walk-off single in the ninth inning.
Kansas City, Mo. — The losing streak is now five games. The road record is now an MLB-worst 6-16.
The Kansas City Royals prolonged the Tigers’ misery Saturday night with a relatively breezy 5-1 win at Kauffman Stadium.
Oh, and the Tigers might’ve lost another player in the process.
Right fielder Kerry Carpenter left the game in the third inning. He banged his left shoulder running into the side wall chasing Bobby Witt Jr.’s first-inning, two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Witt, a right-handed hitter, sliced a drive inside the bag at first. Carpenter chased it toward the side wall, but the ball caromed past him. Witt never stopped running.
Carpenter stayed in the game and even rolled an infield single in the second inning. But he was replaced by Wenceel Perez when the Royals came to bat in the third inning.
BOX SCORE: Royals 5, Tigers 1
He was being evaluated during the game.
The two-run homer by Witt ended up being more than the Tigers’ sputtering offense could overcome. But, for good measure, Michael Massey added a three-run home run off Ty Madden in the fourth inning.
Madden ended up being one of the few bright spots in the game for the Tigers. He pitched six innings and allowed just one other hit. He set down the last 11 hitters he faced.
He entered in the third inning after opener Burch Smith and lefty Tyler Holton worked one time through the Royals’ batting order.
Holton made a nifty escape in the first inning. With runners at second and third and one out, and two runs already in, Jac Caglianone hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Zach McKinstry, who was playing in on the grass.
McKinstry got the out at first. The runner at second, Carter Jensen, mistakenly broke for third where Vinnie Pasquantino was holding.
Spencer Torkelson threw to shortstop Kevin McGonigle who threw to catcher Jake Rogers once Pasquantino broke for home — your basic 4-3-6-2 double-play.
Not much else went the Tigers’ way.
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha snuffed out the few scoring opportunities the Tigers mustered.
He worked around an error and a McKinstry stolen base in the third innings. He got Jake Rogers to pop to shallow right field with runners at first and third and one out and then got Matt Vierling to ground out with the bases loaded in the fifth.
Wacha allowed two hits in seven innings. The Tigers put 18 balls in play against him with a soft average exit velocity of 84.4 mph.
The Tigers broke through in the eighth against lefty reliever Matt Strahm. And it was left-handed hitters who did the dirty work. Riley Greene, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 20 games, doubled home McGonigle.
This season is a long way from over but Tigers, 18-22, are in serious need a course correction.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
4Warn Weather – SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy skies. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. A few storms could be strong with gusty winds and hail. High: 71.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies, becoming partly cloudy skies late. Low: 45.
SUNDAY (MOTHER’S DAY): Mix of sunshine and clouds, cooler temperatures. High: 61.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Another chilly night. Low: 41.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny skies, remaining chilly. High: 58.
After a beautiful end to the week on Friday with sunshine and a little cloud cover, with warmer temperatures moving into the region as well, some of us are waking up to some patchy dense fog on Saturday morning. Some places south of M-59 are seeing reduced visibilities down to around a mile. If you do run into some patchy dense fog, be sure to use your low beams.
That warming trend continues into the start of the weekend on Saturday, but it also brings a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Another cold front will work through the region by Saturday afternoon and early Saturday evening and that will bring our thunderstorm chance. High temperature is warming into low 70s by Saturday afternoon.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed most of the region under a Marginal Risk (1 out of 5) on our severe weather scale for the start of the weekend. Gusty winds and hail are the primary threats as we work through the start of the weekend, but this will not be a widespread threat for severe thunderstorms.
Behind that cold front for the end of the weekend on Sunday, we will keep a mixture of sunshine and clouds into the forecast. High temperatures running about 10 to 15° cooler to end the weekend. Expect high to warm into the upper 50s to lower 60s by Sunday afternoon.
Drier weather sticks around for the start of next week, before another chance of rain moves into the region by the time we get to Tuesday. The cooler-than-average temperatures will continue into the start of next week as well. Expect high temperatures to remain in the 50s for Monday and Tuesday.
Temperature start to warm up by the middle of next week, and Drier weather moves back in by Wednesday behind another cold front moving into the region. Expect high temperatures into the lower 60s on Wednesday to warm into the upper 60s by the time we get to Thursday. Above average temperatures move back into the region as we look ahead into the end of the week, expect high temperatures back into the lower 70s by the time we get to Friday.
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