LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Tigers’ No. 1 prospect Casey Mize shook hands with Christopher Ilitch as the team’s chairman/CEO made his way through Detroit’s clubhouse on Friday morning -- and then Mize made an even bigger impression on the mound at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on Friday afternoon.

“He can really do some things,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said after the Tigers’ 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays. “He was in control. You can see it.”

On the day Mize retained his spot atop MLB Pipeline’s Top Prospect rankings for the Tigers, 2018’s No. 1 MLB Draft pick backed up his status with two strikeouts in a perfect eighth inning. His splitter wasn’t quite the devastating pitch it was in his previous outing on Sunday, but everything else was effective.

The sight of Mize (No. 7 prospect overall) spiking a splitter in front of home plate, as he did to his second batter of the afternoon, was rare. But he followed that with a 97-mph fastball, setting up Blue Jays catcher Riley Adams for a sharp-dropping slurve -- a pitch Mize has been working on since last year.

Mize put a couple more splitters in the dirt against his final batter, Griffin Conine, before striking him out on a slider.

“It was good,” Mize said. “I was trying to be really smooth and locate well and try to make it a quick inning. That was my thought process with everything.”

Mize slowed down his delivery a tad after struggling to keep his fastball down in his previous outing, which had cost him a couple of runs. This time, he threw just 15 pitches (10 for strikes) and he held his fastball in the mid-90s.

Mize likely has at least a couple more outings to come in big-league camp. Assuming he keeps pitching every five days, his next appearance would fall in line with the Tigers’ overnight trip to Fort Myers, Fla., against the Red Sox on Wednesday, followed by their two-game trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., to face the Astros on March 9.

Faedo feels more comfortable
One inning before Mize took the mound, fellow Tigers first-round Draft pick Alex Faedo recorded one strikeout and allowed one hit in the seventh.

Faedo fanned Blue Jays infielder Kevin Smith on three pitches, finishing him off with a slider for an easy first out. He allowed a single to Gabriel Guerrero, but catcher Brady Policelli threw Guerrero out at second on a pitch in the dirt before Faedo induced a Josh Palacios popup on a 94-mph fastball.

Greene with envy
After two home runs and four walks, Riley Greene, Detroit’s No. 3 prospect, finally made an out this spring. It didn’t start a trend.

A late add to Detroit’s roster for Friday’s game, Greene drew his fourth walk of the spring. He finally struck out in the seventh inning against Hector Perez and looked to be headed for a similar fate against veteran reliever Jake Petricka.

Greene fell into an 0-2 hole on back-to-back called strikes from plate umpire Laz Diaz leading off the bottom of the ninth. From there, however, he fouled off three consecutive 96-mph fastballs -- all to the left side -- to stay alive. After taking a slider in the dirt and another fastball off the plate, Greene finally caught up with the fastball and centered it, sending a hard-hit ball to center that Anthony Alford lost in the sun and dropped.

Goodrum remains out as Tigers exercise caution
While most of Detroit’s regulars were in Friday’s starting lineup for the first Fox Sports Detroit telecast of the spring, Niko Goodrum was not. He remains out with a sore groin as the Tigers remain cautious not to reaggravate an injury that ended Goodrum’s 2019 season a month early.

Goodrum is expected to miss Saturday’s game against the Yankees as well.

“I’ll be playing when it’s ready and when Al and Gardy sign off on it,” Goodrum said, referring to Tigers general manager Al Avila and manager Ron Gardenhire. “When they think it’s ready and I say I feel great, they’ll make the decision.”

The decision is out of Goodrum’s hands because he tried to play through a left groin strain last August. That injury worsened to the point that he was shut down late in the month. This injury is less severe.

Jones scratched
Center fielder JaCoby Jones was a late scratch with what was classified as right calf tightness. Jones was originally expected to make the trip to Tampa for Saturday’s matchup against the Yankees, but he is expected to miss at least the next couple of games.

Up next
Matthew Boyd makes his second appearance of the spring, and Matt Manning is expected to do the same after him for the 1:05 p.m. ET road game against the Yankees. Cameron Maybin, Jeimer Candelario and Grayson Greiner will take their swings against new Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Tune in on Fox Sports Detroit and MLB.TV.