Tigers minor-leaguers scorch Red Sox for 5 runs in 8th
Evan Petzold
LAKELAND, Fla. — The Tigers beat the Red Sox, 6-2, on Tuesday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
The Tigers are 11-9 in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
Five runs arrived for the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth inning, all thanks to several players from minor-league camp, to put the Tigers ahead 6-2.
The Tigers grabbed the lead, 3-2, on Jake Holton's two-run single. He swung at a 3-0 fastball from right-handed reliever Chase Shugart and drove in Eric De La Rosa (walk) and Gage Workman (walk).
"You trust these guys to make a lot of good decisions, whether they're young minorleague hitters, or whether they're established major-league hitters," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "It's a good outcome when that happens."
Brendon Davis, still a member of big-league camp, singled to keep the pressure on, and Colt Keith — arguably the top prospect in the organization — increased the lead to 4-2 with an RBI single.
The Tigers added two more runs on Luis Garcia's sacrifice fly to right field. On the play, Keith tagged up when nobody covered second base and ended up scoring on a throwing error from shortstop Luis Ravelo.
For the second straight outing, right-handed reliever Alex Lange struggled to throw strikes. He didn't allow a run against the Red Sox in the sixth inning, but he walked two batters.
Lange, who has aspirations to close for the
Tigers, has thrown 13 of 38 pitches for strikes — a 34.2% strike rate — and conceded five walks in his past two outings.
Starting off
Right-hander Michael Lorenzen, making his third start this spring, allowed two runs on five hits with zero walks and three strikeouts in 22⁄3 innings, throwing 51 of 69 pitches for strikes.
The Red Sox didn't whiff at his revered changeup, but they did so six times at his slider.
Lorenzen lost an eight-pitch battle and gave up a solo home run to leadoff hitter Raimel Tapia in the first inning. The next batter, Triston Casas, battled for 11 pitches and singled to right field.
The Tigers removed Lorenzen after 25 pitches.
"They put up pretty good at-bats against him," Hinch said. "That's why we had to go get him with the luxury of the spring training rule. All in all, he kept going inside the strike zone. Now we can look at pitch sequencing and the way he's using his stuff. But it was a good step forward."
Left-hander Adam Wolf recorded the final two outs in the first, and Lorenzen came back for the second inning. He retired the Red Sox in order and needed 14 pitches for his three outs in the second.
He struck out Bobby Dalbec with a sweeping slider to wrap up his afternoon. Right-hander Edwin Uceta took over in search of the final two outs, but catcher Jake Rogers stole the show.
Rogers, who missed last season due to Tommy John surgery, picked off Ronaldo Hernandez at first base for the second out, then threw out Greg Allen trying to steal second base for the third out.
TV/radio:
Probable pitchers: Tigers — RHP Spencer Turnbull (0-0, 4.15 ERA this spring); Phillies — TBA.
"He's the same that he was prior to the injury from a defensive standpoint," Hinch said. "He's doing things very instinctively and not holding back at all."
On the mound
Rule 5 draft pick Mason Englert, a righthander, faced four batters in the eighth inning. He walked the second batter, Casas, on six pitches before beating Adam Duvall and Christian Arroyo.
Englert struck out Duvall on three pitches: called strike (84.3 mph slider), called strike (93 mph four-seam fastball) and swinging strike (84.9 mph changeup). The 23-year-old, who needs to stay on the 26-man roster for the entire season or else be offered back to his former team, returned for a perfect ninth inning.
He continues to impress.
Three stars
1. Englert; 2. Kreidler; 3. Uceta.