13-pitch AB defines Mize's night: 'Didn't want to give in'

ATLANTA -- The sweat-drenched jersey of Casey Mize showed the battle scars of the Tigers starter’s 13-pitch at-bat against Ozzie Albies in the second inning of Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Braves. Albies fouled off seven consecutive 3-2 pitches and nine pitches in all, all fastballs and sliders. With Albies spitting on splitters, Mize went back to the same two pitches, all in the zone, hoping to find an out if not a whiff.

“I threw a couple splits early that got away arm-side,” Mize explained. “I was feeling really good with my fastball tonight and then was able to execute some sliders as well, so I kind of just committed to throwing those two pitches until the at-bat was over.”

He didn’t have to win the at-bat with a strikeout. He just couldn’t lose it and put him on base -- or worse. So it became an endurance test.

“Maybe as long of an at-bat as you're going to see all year,” manager A.J. Hinch said.

The crowd at Truist Park roared with each foul ball. Finally, Mize fired a 97.7 mph fastball over the plate. Albies’ drive to center drew a roar on contact until Matt Vierling ran it down.

“Didn't want to give in. Didn't want to walk him,” Mize continued. “So just keep driving some heaters in there and got him to fly out. But he's a great competitor and it was a tough at-bat.”

Mize had survived, stranding runners at first and second. But he pushed his pitch count to 54 in the process. He won the at-bat, but lost an inning on his start.

Taken on its own, it seemed a microcosm of Mize’s struggle to get swings and misses. But while Mize lasted just four innings and 87 pitches, he induced 11 swinging strikes, equal to his previous three outings combined. Eight came from fastballs and sliders.

That’s a step in the right direction for Mize (1-5), even in a loss -- his fifth in as many decisions, part of a personal 10-game winless streak since his lone win on April 21.

It was cruel irony that some of Mize’s best swing-and-miss stuff came in the opening inning that doomed him. Both runs Mize allowed came in his first three batters, all two-strike hits. He began his night with back-to-back swinging strikes on Jarred Kelenic, including a splitter off the plate to the left-handed batter, and tried to go back to a high fastball that got him strike one. He left a 96 mph fastball on the inner half that Kelenic sent back up the middle for a leadoff single.

“I was trying to elevate a heater to Kelenic there,” Mize explained, “and something we worked on was when I'm trying to go up, trying not to miss too high up to that waste pitch. I just went the other direction this time of too much over the plate.”

After back-to-back pitches off the plate to Albies, Mize got back into the count with a slider and splitter, both of which Albies fouled off. Albies also fouled off a 98 mph heater before Mize left a curveball up that Albies ripped into the right-field corner for an RBI triple. A hanging 0-2 splitter to Marcell Ozuna became an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.

“That's the difference in the game,” Mize lamented. “We worked on trying not to waste pitches with two strikes, but also you can't be too good with two strikes as well. So it's just a balance of that.”

Mize allowed just two hits from there, one a bunt single. Mize got his revenge on Kelenic, fanning him on a 3-2 slider ahead of the battle with Albies. All three of his strikeouts were swing-and-miss, two off a fastball that averaged 96.9 mph, 1.5 mph above his season average.

“I think it just opens up some other stuff,” Mize said. “Slider played a little bit better off of it, I believe. I feel like I commanded it a little bit better than I have over the past few [starts], so I was happy with that.

“Obviously it was coming out better than it has been. If I feel like I have an electric fastball, I think that allows everything just to get a little bit better. Just gotta hone in on some of the misfires on some of the offspeed to allow the fastball to make those pitches better.”