Giants 4, Tigers 3: Jobe and Mize have their final tune-up for Opening Day

Justyn-Henry Malloy homered, but the Tigers just couldn’t come up with the big knock in this one.

The Detroit Tigers and the San Francisco Giants met up for the final game of the 2025 Grapefruit League calendar on Tuesday night. It was a pretty well played game, but a couple of walks by Tigers pitchers came back to bite them. Justyn-Henry Malloy supplied some power, but otherwise the knocks with runners on base fell just short of the Giants tally as the Tigers lost by a 4-3 score.

Fans were treated to an interesting matchup for the last game of spring camp. Jackson Jobe squared off against the Giants high-powered right-hander Jordan Hicks, whose conversion from relief to starting in San Francisco has gone pretty well.

Both pitchers had a snappy first inning. The Tigers went in order to Hicks, seeing some pretty hellacious 97-99 mph sinkers. Jobe needed just six pitches to retire the side, striking out Willy Adames swinging over a curveball.

In the second, Kerry Carpenter and Colt Keith grounded out before Justyn-Henry Malloy got a sweeper that hung up in the zone and beat it over the wall in straightaway center field. 1-0 Tigers.

Jobe got ahead of Matt Chapman 0-2, but a nice piece of hitting on a cutter at the bottom of the zone was grounded into right field for a single. Heliot Ramos flew out to Javy Báez, who had plenty of chances in center field in this one. Jobe whiffed Patrick Bailey on changeup, and Wilmer Flores flew out to Carpenter in right field.

The Tigers went in order in the top of the third, and the Giants then ambushed Jobe in the bottom half. After pounding the zone through two innings, the top pitching prospect got a little wild and walked leadoff man Mike Yastrzemski. Jobe missed down with a first pitch sinker to Tyler Fitzgerald, and then fired a fourseamer down the middle. Yastrzemski didn’t miss, pulling a two-run shot to left. 2-1 Giants.

Jobe bounced back to strike out Lamonte Wade Jr. Willy Adames singled to left, but Jobe froze Jung-Hoo Lee for the second out of the inning. Another hard hit ball to center field, this one from Chapman, tested Báez again but he hauled it in to end the inning.

The Tigers got a two-out single from Carpenter in the fourth, but Colt Keith chopped a grounder up the middle that ended the inning.

Jobe came out for the fourth and fell behind 2-1 to Ramos. A pretty wicked cutter-changeup combo drew a pair of whiffs for his fifth strikeout. Jobe walked Patrick Bailey and gave up some solid contact to Flore and Yastrzemwki, but both were out to Báez in center and he handled both pretty well despite battling the sun a bit.

His final line was 4.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K. Refinement is still required, but it should come quickly working with Rogers and the major league coaching staff.

Báez singled with one out in the fifth, but Trey Sweeney grounded into an inning ending double play. That turned the game over to Casey Mize in relief of Jobe. Both pitchers were scheduled to throw about 60-70 pitches in their final tune-up before the regular season.

Mize looked pretty good from the start. He struck out Fitzgerald swinging over a slider. Wade Jr. doubled to right field on a hard hit ball, but Mize punched out Adames and got Lee to ground out to Gleyber Torres at second. Mize has looked outstanding this spring, and he is ready to go.

Jake Rogers led off the sixth, and showed off the good eye, drawing a leadoff walk. That ended Hicks day. The Tigers didn’t mind seeing him go. In his place was hard throwing right-hander Joel Peguero, who was with the Erie SeaWolves last summer. The Tigers didn’t add him to the 40-man and Peguero elected free agency. He throws triple digits, but he’s also 27 years old and hasn’t quite been able to put it together in pro ball. Hated to see him get away though.

Zack McKinstry greeted Peguero with a single through the right side of the infield, and Rogers adroitly went first to third on the play. Riley Greene hammered a line drive right to Lee in center field, and Rogers tagged and scored easily to tie the game 2-2. Nice job there by Mr. Greene.

Riley Unroe, Triple-A utilityman extraordinaire, pinch-hit for Gleyber Torres. He grounded out, and Carpenter flew out to left field to end the threat. But the Tigers had tied the game up.

During the game, it was revealed that the dirt strip between the pitchers’ mound and home plate has been removed from Comerica Park. Referred to as the keyhole, the strip is a vestige of a time when all baseball parks had them and they were typically much wider. Comerica Park was the last major league park to feature one. The whole field at Comerica was just resurfaced and unfortunately the strip is gone, removing the most distinctive and unique feature within the field of play. Conformity reigns.

Casey Mize reigned in San Francisco, at least early on. He got Chapman to ground out to start the bottom of the sixth, then whiffed Ramos on a nasty splitter. An 83 mph sweeper drew a strike three whiff from Bailey, and Mr. Mize was rolling.

On to the seventh.

Right-hander Randy Rodriguez took over from Peguero and promptly walked Colt Keith. Malloy grounded out, moving Keith to second. Báez got inside one and lined out sharply to first base, and Sweeney swung over a slider after seeing triple digits from Rodriguez.

Stretch time.

The Tigers went defensive replacement mode, with Ryan Kreidler taking over in center field, Andy Ibáñez in for Keith at first, Bligh Madris in right for Carpenter, and Andrew Navigato for McKinstry at third.

Instead, Mize dispatched Flores whiffing over a knuckle curve. Luis Matos tipped a perfectly located fourseamer into Rogers’ glove, but then yanked a few pitches down to his gloveside and walked Tyler Fitzgerald. Grant McCray was up next and Casey got ahead of him, but then missed with a pair of pitches as Fitzgerald stole second on a ball that got away from Rogers.

McCray fouled off a pretty good splitter and then a 96.3 mph heater. Mize hung a breaking ball too much, and McCray lined a single to center field, and Fitzgerald raced around to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. A first pitch slider to Christian Koss hung was just a cement mixer middle-middle, and Koss smoked it to the wall in left center field. 4-2 Giants. Mize struck out Sam Huff to end the inning, but a little bit of poor command bit him in that inning.

Camilo Doval took over in the eighth, and man the Giants have some flame-throwing relievers. Could use one of these guys. Of course, velo isn’t everything. Jake Rogers greeted Doval with a solid single into center field. Hao-Yu Lee pinch ran for him, and Navigato lined a slider into center field to put two on for Manuel Margot, who was hitting for Riley Greene. Margot worked his way to a 2-2 count, fouling off some good sliders, and he too lined a single to center, scoring Lee. Navigato got to third on the play, but they caught Margot trying to take second on the throw in to home. 4-3 Giants.

Unfortunately, Unroe and Madris grounded out to end the rally, and they headed to the bottom of the eighth with the Giants still ahead by a run.

Casey Mize was bitten by a couple of bad pitches in his three innings of work, but he struck out seven hitters, walking one. This is definitely an upgraded version. We’re pretty excited to see how Mize does this season. His line was 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, BB, 7 K. The harder splitter is much more effective so far, and just as crucially, Mize has finally found a better set of breaking balls and already shows some feel for adding and subtracting velo and depth.

Kenta Maeda took over and promptly froze Wade Meckler with a backdoor slider for strike three. Next up was old friend and former Tigers’ farmhand, Sergio Alcantara. He grounded out, and Brett Auerbach swung through a 91.8 mph heater from Maeda to end the inning.

Last call for a comeback.

Andy Ibáñez was first up, but he chased a Ryan Walker breaking ball and struck out. Walker has a seriously closed setup and looks like he’s going to third base before he snaps on target. Pretty gnarly considering he’s got a 96-97 mph twoseamer with a lot of life. Malloy fell behind but took a pair of breaking balls away to even the count. He then got jammed and grounded out to third.

Ryan Kreidler got a 2-2 fastball and put a great swing on it. He hammered it to the right field wall and just off the outstretched glove of Matos. Kreidler cruised into third with a triple. but Dillon Dingler’s liner to left was caught to end the game.

The Tigers have an off day on Wednesday as they fly down to Los Angeles for the season opener on Thursday night. Should be a fun, but tough opening series against the defending World Series champs. Tarik Skubal will duel Blake Snell in a fantastic southpaw matchup.

The 2025 season is almost here.

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