Detroit Tigers' Casey Mize tosses 3 perfect innings, pulled by plan in 4-1 win vs. Reds

CINCINNATI — Detroit Tigers rookie Casey Mize walked down the dugout steps and received a handshake from manager AJ Hinch.

The 24-year-old had a perfect game through three innings, but his manager didn't let him return to the mound for the fourth. Just as he was in early July, Mize is back to a limited workload — no more than roughly three innings — for the remainder of the 2021 season. The Tigers want to protect the health of his prized right arm during his first full MLB season.

Mize should finish the year somewhere around 150 innings.

"There was no thought for sending him back out for the fourth," Hinch said. "This will be Casey's plan moving forward. Maybe I go a little shorter. I don't know if there's a free inning at the back of these games, but going into this game, we knew exactly that he was going to get nine outs."

Even without their best pitcher, the Tigers beat the Cincinnati Reds for a 4-1 victory in Sunday's series finale at Great American Ball Park. Mize now has a 3.51 ERA, 39 walks and 106 strikeouts over 138⅓ innings.

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Winning two of three games in series, the Tigers (65-73) are 56-49 since May 8 and 25-22 since the All-Star Break.

"I'm definitely glad to walk out of here with a series win," Mize said. "That's always a good feeling. I'm looking forward to carrying that over into Pittsburgh. ... I think finding different ways to win is definitely going to be beneficial, not only for next season but for the rest of this month."

The three perfect innings began with a sharp first frame, inducing groundouts against Jonathan India, Tyler Naquin and Nick Castellanos. Of his seven pitches, all of them went for strikes. He recorded three groundouts, four flyouts and two strikeouts for his nine outs.

"Casey has to be one of the best, most efficient short-start guys in history," Hinch said. "Every time we do this with him, he seems to throw under 30 pitches or barely over 30 pitches through his three innings. Maybe he'll take something from that into the outings when we stretch him back out."

In the second, Mize retired Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas and Kyle Farmer on 17 pitches. He struck out Moustakas with a slider to win an eight-pitch battle over the 11-year MLB veteran. Mize then tossed 10 pitches for the third frame, sending down Tucker Barnhart, Max Schrock and Luis Castillo.

Mize struck out Castillo — Cincinnati's starting pitcher — to conclude his outing. For his 26th start this season and the 33rd of his big-league career, he tossed 27 of 34 pitches for strikes and produced a pair of strikeouts.

"They've been very transparent," Mize said. "They've planned this out, and the goal all along is to get to the finish line. We're at a point now where we got to do this to make that happen. I'm just wasting everybody's time if I'm sitting there fighting for it. It's not easy for any of us to do, but it's the plan. It's what we have to execute to get me to the finish line instead of shutting me down. So I'm OK with it."

Clutch Candelario

Stuck in a scoreless game, the Tigers threatened Castillo for the first time in the sixth inning. Akil Baddoo led off with a double to left field, and although Jonathan Schoop lined out, Robbie Grossman took advantage of a defensive mistake.

A fielding error by Votto at first base put runners on the corners. Grossman stole second base, giving him 16 steals this season to go with 21 home runs, to advance two runners into scoring position for Jeimer Candelario.

And Candelario delivered.

"The best version of us has been a pressure team," Hinch said, "where we have speed, balls in play and we're moving guys and we're stealing a couple bases here or there. We put a lot of pressure on the other side. You got to get on base to utilize that speed."

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After Castillo missed the strike zone with a first-pitch fastball, he went to four consecutive changeups. Candelario ripped his 3-1 changeup to the right-field corner for a triple, scoring Baddoo and Grossman for a 2-0 lead.

"It was a tough changeup," Candelario said. "I was just looking for something to hit. I saw his changeup, and I saw that I could put a good swing on it. So why not?"

Candelario is hitting .280 with three triples and an MLB-leading 39 doubles over 128 games this season.

He scored for a 3-0 lead on Eric Haase's sacrifice fly, which was lined to Castellanos in right field. Despite a late tag at third base, Candelario slid in ahead of Castellanos' throw home.

Castillo allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks over six innings. He struck out seven batters and fired 91 pitches.

Baddoo's speed put the Tigers up 4-0 in the eighth inning.

Trying to steal second base, he ended up scoring from first base on Schoop's single to center field. Third base coach Ramon Santiago checked to see how Naquin would field the ball in center field before giving Baddoo the green light by waving his arm.

Bullpen takes over

As Hinch shook Mize's hand, righty reliever Jose Urena — used as a starter earlier in the season — stood up in the right-field bullpen.

Urena posted a solid 2⅔ scoreless innings to get the Tigers through two outs in the sixth inning, when high-leverage reliever Michael Fulmer took over. He avoided damage in the fourth (two singles), fifth (two singles) and sixth (one single). 

Striking out one batter, Urena threw 33 of 46 pitches for strikes.

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Fulmer completed the sixth with five pitches, getting Votto to groundout to second base.

During his perfect seventh inning, Fulmer tossed three curveballs. (Entering Sunday, he had only thrown 17 curveballs this season.) Two of them went for swings and misses against Farmer, one of which produced a swinging strikeout.

"It won't be a secret weapon anymore," Hinch said. "He has been working on it quite a bit and wanted to break it out. It's a little bit more in his starter arsenal. So the change of pace pitch is really good for him. There was a big smile on his face when he came in. He put that on the scouting report, so the next team that faces him will be ready for it."

Jose Cisnero put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth, so Hinch replaced him with lefty closer Gregory Soto. A wild pitch plated Schrock for Cincinnati's first run, and pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera drew a walk to bring Castellanos — the game-tying run — to the plate.

Castellanos struck out at a slider for the second out. Votto also struck out swinging at a slider, stranding two runners and ending the eighth.

Throwing 24 total pitches, Soto fired a perfect ninth for his 18th save.

"He's been lights out for us," Mize said. "I mean, he's a true competitor and shows raw emotion. He gets us fired up. When he comes in the game, we feel pretty comfortable about getting out of the sticky situation and that the game is pretty much over. We feel good when he's in there for us."

Evan Petzold is a sports reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.