The Detroit Tigers got an extra day of rest on Friday.
They had a day off on Thursday, and their scheduled home game against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday was postponed by inclement weather.
The teams will play a split doubleheader on Saturday in Detroit.
The Tigers will start right-hander Casey Mize in the opener, and rookie righty Jackson Jobe is expected to get the nod in the nightcap.
Mize (3-1, 2.22 ERA) held the Royals to one run and four hits over seven innings last Saturday in a 3-1 victory in his longest start in four seasons.
“He was really good,” Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler said. “And the best part was, he was landing pretty much all of his pitches. I know we used some more than others, but he had great control over all of his sliders and especially his four-seamer and split. He was able to keep them off-balance the whole game.”
Mize is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA in two career starts against the Orioles.
Jobe (2-0, 2.70 ERA) has won his last two starts. He tossed six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, in a 4-0 victory against Minnesota on April 12. He followed that with a five-inning outing versus Kansas City on April 18 in which he limited the Royals to one run and five hits in a 7-3 triumph.
Jobe gave up back-to-back doubles in the first inning before settling in.
“I just felt like I wasn’t aggressive enough in that first inning. I was falling behind,” he said. “After that, (catcher Tomas) Nido reeled me back in and we started rolling.”
Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said he felt Jobe’s most recent start was his best this season.
“The results weren’t necessarily as good as his last one (the six shutout innings), but he might’ve thrown the ball better,” Hinch said. “As he got into the game, he got better and better.”
Jobe, 22, will face the Orioles for the first time in his young career.
Baltimore will go with rookie right-hander Brandon Young (0-0, 6.75 ERA) and veteran Charlie Morton (0-5, 10.89) as its starters on Saturday.
Young will make his second major league start. He made his debut in the Orioles’ 9-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds last Saturday. Young, 26, allowed three runs and seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts in four-plus innings.
“Pretty unreal. I had the expectations coming in, but blew them out of the water,” said Young, who underwent a pair of Tommy John surgeries before realizing his MLB aspirations.
“Still hard to breathe. Can’t feel my legs. But that was awesome. Everything I’ve dreamed for.”
The Orioles hope the 41-year-old Morton has something left in the tank. He was signed to a one-year, $15 million contract to stabilize the back end of the rotation.
Morton has lost all five of his starts, giving up at least four earned runs each time. His last start was a disaster. He lasted just 2 1/3 innings against Cincinnati on Sunday, surrendering seven runs and seven hits and walking four in a game the Reds won 24-2.
“If you said, ‘We’ll give you 30 starts to get this right,’ I’ll get it right. It’s just, how negatively do I affect the team during that process, right? That’s the question,” Morton said. “Do I think that I can still pitch well? Yeah. It’s just some of the things that are going wrong right now — like just throwing strikes, making decent pitches consistently, getting into a rhythm, getting some momentum. That’s the issue.”
Morton is 1-2 with a 1.65 ERA in five career starts against the Tigers.
–Field Level Media
