A VERY SAD NEWS: Detroit Tigers coach has just suspended three of his key players due to……READ MORE
LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers took down the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-2, on Sunday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
The Tigers are 20-9-3 in Grapefruit League play.
Right-hander Jack Flaherty struck out the first four batters he faced in his final spring training start: José Caballero (foul tip, 86 mph slider), Austin Shenton (swinging strike, 79 mph curveball), Randy Arozarena (called strike, 94 mph fastball) and former Tiger Isaac Paredes (called strike, 95 mph fastball).
Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract in the offseason, struck out eight batters — with zero walks — across 4⅔ innings, throwing 63 of 87 pitches for strikes. The 28-year-old finished the spring with a 2.95 ERA and 26 strikeouts across 18⅓ innings in six games.Detroit
“Just the way my body is moving and the way that I’m able to repeat everything,” Flaherty said. “Last year, I would have some starts or an inning or a hitter that would be good, and then I wouldn’t be able to repeat it. The next time out, itDetroit was like, where is my body in space? This spring, I feel like I’ve been able to repeat things over and over and over again a lot better.”
For his last four strikeouts, Flaherty struck out Richie Palacios (swinging strike, 80 mph curveball) in the second inning, Caballero (swinging strike, 85 mph slider) and Arozarena (called strike, 86 mph slider) in the third inning and René Pinto (called strike, 95 mph fastball) in the fifth inning.
His fastball averaged 93.8 mph — up from last year’s 93.1 mph average — and maxed out at 96.1 mph.
“I feel really good,” Flaherty said. “Spring gets to be a little bit of a grind towards the end of it, so it’s nice to get out of here and get into the season.”
Flaherty struck out the side in the first inning, but he didn’t have the same success in the second inning.
It wasn’t entirely his fault.
After striking out Paredes, Harold Ramírez reached safely on a throwing error by shortstop Javier Báez. Amed Rosario fell behind 0-2 in the count but tagged a third-pitch slider at the bottom of the strike zone for a double to left field.
He had difficulty with two strikes, but other than that, I think his stuff looks great,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We wanted to get him closer to 90 (pitches) for the regular season, which we did. He continued to flash really, really good stuff. It was an important start to finish strong for him.”
The error and the double put runners on the corners.
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The Rays cashed in when Jose Siri hammered Flaherty’s full-count fastball for a single to left field. Both Ramírez and Rosario scored on the hard-hit single — putting the Rays ahead, 2-0 — but only one run was charged to Flaherty’s tab as an earned run.
Catcher Carson Kelly threw out Siri trying to steal second base for the second out, then Palacios struck out swinging for the third out.
Flaherty gave up five hits.
He threw 43 fastballs, 25 sliders, 15 curveballs and four changeups. He generated 13 whiffs (on 46 swings) with six fastballs, five sliders and two curveballs. He also had 17 called strikes.
“There’s a lot of rep work done over the offseason,” Flaherty said, “and even day to day in just being able to feel my body and where things are at. It’s just constant with everything, mental and physical, knowing what the cue actually is to get on time and get my body moving the right way.”
The Tigers answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second inning, facing right-hander Zack Littell.
Kerry Carpenter delivered a leadoff single, then Javier Báez stole the show with a double — his fourth hit in the past six games — to left field. The free-swinger didn’t hit the ball hard, but he made contact on a splitter below the strike zone and in the dirt.
Gio Urshela drove in both runners to tie the game, 2-2.
It was an encouraging swing from Urshela, who didn’t miss a middle-middle 94 mph fastball in a two-strike count. He drove the ball with a 100.4 mph exit velocity for a two-run ground-rule double to right-center field.
The Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning after Matt Vierling’s walk and Andy Ibáñez’s single. Vierling advanced from first base to third base on Ibáñez’s single, and he scored from third base when Ryan Vilade grounded into a double play.
The Tigers pitched four relievers.
Right-hander Andrew Chafin recorded the final out in the fifth inning with one pitch. After that, right-hander Alex Lange tossed a scoreless sixth inning with one strikeout. Right-hander Will Vest threw a scoreless seventh inning with one strikeout, working around a one-out single.
Right-hander Beau Brieske, who is competing with three other relievers for two openings in the bullpen, handled the eighth and ninth innings. He protected the one-run lead by keeping the Rays from scoring.
He’s working on his secondary pitches and learning how to utilize that so he’s not a fastball-only type of guy,” Hinch said. “I know he’s very much in the mix to potentially break with our team because of the stuff that he has and the velocity uptick, and he’s bouncing back well. He’s made a really strong case to make our team.”
Brieske notched both of his strikeouts in the ninth inning, sending down Nick Schnell (swinging strike, 97 mph fastball) and Raudelis Martinez (swinging strike, 91 mph changeup).
He stranded the game-tying run at second base in the ninth.
“I’m trying not to think about it, to be honest,” Brieske said. “I’m just going out there and trying to pitch. I don’t want to get caught up in anything that I have absolutely no control over. The only thing I have control over is the way I prepare and the way I go out there and pitch.”
They have three former most valuable players at the top of their lineup.
They’ve spent more than $500 million to reconstruct a new-look pitching staff.
They’re the odds-on favorites to win a championship this year, if not several more in the seasons that follow.
They know what the expectations are — and, just as important, the consequences that come with falling short.
“If the Dodgers don’t win the World Series,” manager Dave Roberts said, “I think we’d all feel we’ve failed accomplishing our goal.”
This is nothing new to Roberts and his team. In almost every season of the last decade, World Series or bust has been their default setting.
Read more: What to know about the Shohei Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal
On one occasion they delivered, in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season that loses more luster (and, to some in the sport, legitimacy) the longer it remains their only recent triumph.
But after every other October disappointment, they’ve found ways to regroup, reload their roster and remain consistently competitive — becoming the kind of destination top free agents like, say, Shohei Ohtani have wanted to come experience.
What’s different now, however, in the wake of the Dodgers’ $1.2-billion outlay this offseason, and with a superstar core of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts all in their prime: The Dodgers have the largest championship window they’ve had in recent memory.
The urgency to win remains unchanged.
But the ramifications of coming up empty — of not realizing the “golden era” of Dodgers baseball that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and others in the organization have long dreamed of — could exponentially escalate.
Consider this: Four years from now, Ohtani will be 33, Tyler Glasnow will be 34, Betts will be 35 and Freeman will be a 38-year-old free agent. Between just the three under contract — plus Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who will be 29 — the Dodgers will have a luxury tax hit of $130 million. If any of those core pieces significantly regress, as many players do in their mid-30s and beyond, the team could have dead financial weight even a Guggenheim-sized payroll could have trouble navigating.
To truly achieve a so-called golden era of franchise history, multiple parades (plural, just as Ohtani targeted in a statement upon signing his $700-million contract in December) probably will need to be staged.
In a way they never have before, the Dodgers have pushed their chips to the middle of the table. Now, they’ll anxiously await what cards they are dealt.
“I wouldn’t define it as like going all-in,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “Because I think we still have maintained plenty of optionality to continue to add players, and bring along guys through the development system to contribute at different levels, and have everything time out.
“The goal is to not do a bunch of stuff and then fall off a cliff, right? Like what happens with a lot of big-market teams.”
At the same time, Gomes acknowledged, the level of spending and star power the Dodgers took on this offseason brings a new level of pressure. A new kind of perspective.
Obviously,” he said, “everything gets magnified.”
Even while holding what appears to be the best hand in baseball, unexpected trouble always threatens to abound. And it took only two games for the Dodgers to be reminded, as they split a season-opening series against the San Diego Padres in South Korea.
Yamamoto, the 25-year-old Japanese acquisition who signed the biggest contract by any pitcher outside of Ohtani, was walloped in a one-inning, five-run debut, amplifying questions about his ability to thrive in the majors.
Ohtani, meanwhile, found himself caught up in an alleged gambling scandal. According to his representatives, he was the victim of a “massive theft” by his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, whom the Dodgers fired. But as Ohtani remains conspicuously silent, unanswered questions and industry speculation already have given this season at least one black cloud.
On Friday, MLB announced it had opened an investigation into the allegations surrounding Ohtani and Mizuhara.
“It kind of is what it is,” Betts said. “I hope Sho is good, but at the end of the day you have to make sure we take care of your job.”
Indeed, going back to the start of spring, when an increased media presence and public spotlight descended on them, that has been the sole focus of the Dodgers.
Block out the noise. Push one another behind the scenes. And embrace the pressure, expectations and title-winning window that has been thrust upon them.
It’s what Roberts repeatedly raved about leading up to the season — from the way Betts and Gavin Lux handled a late-spring switch on defense, to the careful efforts of the pitching staff ramping up during a condensed camp, to the open-minded attitude the entire roster largely took to beginning the season on the other side of the world.
Our guys,” Roberts said, “are very self-motivated.”
Third baseman Max Muncy took that sentiment a step further.
“I don’t know if it was the shortened spring training or what, but everyone just feels like we’re on a mission this year,” he said. “There was a whole lot more focus on preparing ourselves. This spring was the most I’ve seen everybody go out and get their work in. … It was fun. It was good. Everyone was getting on everyone.”
Freeman said the team was welcoming all the newfound attention, while sitting beside his two fellow MVPs — and in front of hundreds of reporters and photographers — at an opening news conference for the Seoul series last week.
Our guys,” Roberts said, “are very self-motivated.”
Third baseman Max Muncy took that sentiment a step further.
“I don’t know if it was the shortened spring training or what, but everyone just feels like we’re on a mission this year,” he said. “There was a whole lot more focus on preparing ourselves. This spring was the most I’ve seen everybody go out and get their work in. … It was fun. It was good. Everyone was getting on everyone.”
Freeman said the team was welcoming all the newfound attention, while sitting beside his two fellow MVPs — and in front of hundreds of reporters and photographers — at an opening news conference for the Seoul series last week.
On the mound, not only will Glasnow and Yamamoto be relied upon as aces — at least in the near term, until injured stars including Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw can return from major surgeries — but also younger arms such as Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone and Emmet Sheehan (when he returns from his own injury) will be called upon to provide steady depth.
A similar calculation applies at the plate. Betts, Ohtani, Freeman and catcher Will Smith provide as dependable a top four as any lineup in baseball. But, as the team’s last two postseason eliminations epitomized, consistency will be needed out of the bottom half as well — from Muncy (both with the bat and glove), offseason signing Teoscar Hernández and younger, everyday options such as Lux and James Outman.
Health will be imperative, especially for a bullpen already missing two key arms (Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen both opened the season on the injured list).
So too will be a sense of clubhouse togetherness, with one scandalous subplot already threatening to test the fabric of the team.
Read more: Startled Dodgers move on after Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter accused of theft, gambling
“This team has been through a lot,” Roberts said after Thursday’s loss to the Padres, “as far as the core guys over the years.”
The one thing they’ve yet to do, though, is translate that talent and experience into more than one 60-game championship.
Thanks to their big offseason, they should be primed to rectify that this year, and the next few to come
A dynastic window has been firmly propped open. They’ll have only so long before it might shut.
