Boston, MA
Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty, Kenta Maeda hit by top prospects from Red Sox in 6-5 loss
Bobby Scales on Colt Keith’s move to first base and player progression
Detroit Tigers radio analyst Bobby Scales talks what fans could expect with Colt Keith’s new role and what other players he’s keeping an eye on.
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.”
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.
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.
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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It’s going to be a little while longer before Roman Anthony returns to action.
The Red Sox outfielder has suffered another setback in his recovery from a sprained right hand and will be shut down from swinging for a couple of days.
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Cleveland that Anthony tried hitting off a tee Thursday for the first time since suffering his injury on May 4, but that he found doing so to be painful.
“He hit off the tee (yesterday) and had some discomfort, so we’re going to slow play it,” Tracy said, per MLB.com’s Henry Palattella. “It’s going to be day-to-day, or even the better way is ‘action-to-action.’ (We’re going to be asking), ‘What did he do today, is that uncomfortable and do we have to wait?’ ”
Originally thought to be a minor issue that might not even require a stint on the injured list, Anthony has now missed 21 games and likely won’t be back until early-to-mid June.
The recovery process has also been halting. Anthony has continued doing most other baseball activities, including running and throwing, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that he could swing a bat free of discomfort.
Once he was able to comfortably take dry swings — or swing a bat without hitting the ball — the next step was hitting off a tee. Now he’ll be given a couple more days to heal and likely won’t try again until the Red Sox return home from Cleveland and are back at Fenway Park on Tuesday following Monday’s off day.
Tracy acknowledged that the recovery hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected, but emphasized that isn’t because of anything Anthony’s done wrong.
“That’s not Roman’s fault, it’s not anyone’s fault,” Tracy said. “It’s just he got hurt, and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit.”
Speaking to Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast prior to Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Anthony clarified the exact nature of his injury, which was officially announced by the team as a right wrist sprain. Anthony said he has a partially torn ring finger ligament, specifically his ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal).
The sprain versus torn verbiage has generated some confusion among fans, though medically there isn’t a meaningful distinction between the two.
“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things, and I don’t know what to say other than any of those are a tear,” Tracy said. “You strain a hamstring and that’s a partial tear; fibers let go a little bit and they need to heal.
“I don’t think anything is portrayed differently or wrongly. If a guy strains his hamstring, I won’t come out here and say he tore his hamstring. That’s not how that works.”
Prior to suffering his injury, Anthony was batting .229 with one home run and a .675 OPS through his first 30 games this season.
Surprise: Another weekend and there’s more rain on the way. It’s bad enough we’ve had to post a First Alert.
For now, we’ll watch as clouds thicken today. We’ll squeeze out some drops later this afternoon and evening.
A weather maker is winding up in Canada, wrapping in cold air. All of that is going to dive down to New England.
We’re in the thick of it tomorrow. Rain will be coming at us in bursts with some dry time in between. Winds will likely push past 50 mph in Boston.
Those winds will eat away at temperatures; with wind chills barely above freezing. And no – not just in the morning – but the afternoon, too!
It’s so cold there’s the threat of snow as that rain bumps into colder air over the Berkshires, Worcester Hills and southern New Hampshire right up to Mount Washington.
The snow isn’t going to pile up but just know there could be some flakes flying over our highest hills.
The blue on our Futurecast map marks the spots where snow could mix with rain.
Rain spins out by Saturday evening but not before dumping about half an inch over Boston.
We’ll try to salvage the rest of the weekend with temperatures in the upper 60s by Sunday. Still, there’s the threat of bits and pieces of rain.
By the way, this isn’t any weekend, it’s the last weekend of spring. Meteorological summer starts on June 1.
The first day of summer remains drab and dreary with more rain chances and temperatures in the low 60 on Monday.
Federal immigration demands are once again centered on Massachusetts.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday sent three letters to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins and Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden demanding, among other things, information on how many ICE detainers BPD has received and declined to honor from 2022 to 2026 and any communication between the three departments related to immigration.
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that “releasing repeat criminals back to the streets solely because of their immigration status is crazy, and that’s exactly what Boston is doing.”
But Democrats push back on that framing.
“You’re familiar with Jim Jordan and his antics,” said Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. “This is more circus, it’s more theater and it’s not making our community safe.”
A spokesperson for the City of Boston wrote, “the city has provided this information many times…” going on to say “…these policies are part of keeping Boston the safest major city in America.”
The letters call for the documents to be sent to the House Judiciary Committee by June 10th at 5:00 pm. District Attorney Hayden’s office told NBC 10 they are reviewing the letter, neither Commissioner Cox or Sheriff Tompkins responded to requests for comment.
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