• The Detroit Tigers lost, 6-5, to the Boston Red Sox in Thursday’s split-squad game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
• The Red Sox, led by manager Alex Cora, put three of the best prospects in baseball at the top of the lineup.
• The prospects went 4-for-8 with four RBIs, one walk and two strikeouts in nine plate appearances against right-handers Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda.

LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost, 6-5, to the Boston Red Sox in Thursday’s split-squad game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. The Tigers played against the Tampa Bay Rays in the other split-squad game at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Florida.

The Tigers are 2-3 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

The Red Sox, led by manager Alex Cora, put three of the best prospects in baseball at the top of the lineup: left fielder Roman Anthony (ranked No. 2 on MLB Pipeline’s top-100 list) batting first, second baseman Kristian Campbell (No. 7) batting second, and third baseman Marcelo Mayer (No. 12) batting third.

“I told AC he’s flexing a little bit by bringing those three,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Thursday’s game. “Those kids are good players.”

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The prospects went 4-for-8 with four RBIs, one walk and two strikeouts in nine plate appearances against right-handers Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda.

Mayer — whom the Tigers passed on in favor of right-hander Jackson Jobe at No. 3 overall in the 2021 draft — led the way with three hits in three trips to the plate: an RBI triple off Flaherty in the first inning, a leadoff single off Maeda in the fourth inning and a two-run home run off Maeda in the fifth inning.

All three prospects could start the 2025 season in Triple-A Worcester.

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Starting off

Flaherty made his first start of spring training.

The 29-year-old allowed one run on one hit and two walks with two strikeouts across two innings, throwing 15 of 28 pitches for strikes. He felt good about the way his pitches moved, but he struggled with his command at times.

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The Red Sox tagged him for the lone run in the first inning, when Mayer made Flaherty pay for an eight-pitch walk to Campbell by driving a hanging slider to center field for an RBI triple.

Flaherty threw 15 four-seam fastballs, six sliders, four sinkers, two changeups and one curveball. He generated three whiffs on 11 swings (for a 27.3% whiff rate). His fastball averaged 93.5 mph.

At the plate

The Tigers threatened in the first inning against right-hander Quinn Priester, with a double from Riley Greene (hit with a 111.9 mph exit velocity), a nine-pitch walk from Gleyber Torres and an infield single from Kerry Carpenter.

But Colt Keith grounded into a double play.

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The Tigers scored one run in the fourth inning and three runs in the seventh.

In the fourth, Jake Rogers hit a solo home run off right-handed reliever Josh Winckowski’s first-pitch 96.1 mph sinker, located middle-middle in the strike zone. The wind was blowing to right-center, and the ball kept carrying.

On the mound

After Flaherty, Maeda came out of the bullpen for the third, fourth and fifth innings. The 36-year-old allowed three runs on five hits and zero walks with five strikeouts across three innings, throwing 32 of 50 pitches for strikes.

Maeda retired all three batters in the third and worked around a pair of singles in the fourth, but he ran into trouble in the fifth with three extra-base hits.

The big swings: Trayce Thompson’s leadoff double, Anthony’s RBI double with one out and Mayer’s two-run home run with two outs. The homer from Mayer was significantly aided by the wind blowing out to right, as he hit Maeda’s 91.3 mph fastball with a 94.9 mph exit velocity.

Maeda, whose fastball averaged 91.8 mph, generated seven whiffs on 23 swings for a 30.4% whiff rate on four splitters, two sweepers and one fastball.

Right-handed reliever Will Vest surrendered two home runs in the sixth inning. Jason Foley, a fellow right-handed reliever, shut down all three batters he faced with one strikeout.

Three stars

1. Rogers; 2. Greene; 3. Foley.

Next up

Friday (1:07, no TV or radio) vs. Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida.

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

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