Casey Mize bounces back, Justyn-Henry Malloy slugs in Detroit Tigers' 7-2 win vs. Nats

The Detroit Tigers might not have won without Casey Mize's grit.

Mize is seeking solutions to his struggles — specifically, an 8.22 ERA in his previous four starts — in his return from elbow surgery and back surgery, and he delivered a bounce-back performance Thursday against the Washington Nationals.

The Tigers beat the Nationals, 7-2, to avoid a sweep of the three-game series at Comerica Park, thanks to Mize's six innings of one-run ball. It was a good performance he needed desperately.

"It's been a tough stretch, so today was a good step forward," Mize said. "I view it as a good day. The win is the most important thing. For me, to kind of have a good one after a tough stretch feels good."

Mize tossed 84 pitches as he allowed four hits and one walk with four strikeouts across six innings, departing with a 2-1 lead. Likewise, the Tigers' offense took a step toward solving some struggles of its own, scoring five runs on five hits in the bottom of the seventh inning.

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Facing right-handed reliever Derek Law, the Tigers (33-35) strung together three hits in a row with Ryan Kreidler's bloop single, Matt Vierling's bloop single and Andy Ibáñez's RBI double (on a two-strike slider) to take a 3-2 advantage.

"We hung in there," manager A.J. Hinch said. "In the early part of the game, we were leaving guys on base almost every inning. It was nice to take control of the game, and it came with quality at-bats. It didn't come with emptying the tank. It didn't come with trying to do too much. It came with quality at-bat after quality at-bat, and that's encouraging."

Mark Canha put the Tigers ahead, 4-2, with a sacrifice fly. The Nationals swapped Law for left-handed reliever Robert Garcia for a matchup with left-handed hitter Riley Greene.

Greene stepped to the plate with a .167 batting average and a .550 OPS against left-handed pitchers in 65 plate appearances this season, but he won the left-on-left matchup against Garcia with an RBI single for a 5-2 lead.

The Tigers made it 7-2 when Justyn-Henry Malloy — playing in his ninth MLB game — hammered a 95.2 mph fastball into the left-field corner for a two-run double.

Malloy also hit a solo home run in the sixth inning.

"Good crowd," Malloy said. "We get good crowds, and I think that's pretty sick. To give our fans a win going on the road, I think that's always some momentum. We'll try to keep it up over the next six games and then come back home."

Mize competes

Facing the Nationals, Mize generated just three whiffs on 33 swings for an underwhelming 9.1% whiff rate — following one whiff on 36 swings in his last start — but the 27-year-old right-hander, a former No. 1 overall pick, generated weak contact to grind through six innings without his best secondary pitches.

It was his first six-inning start since mid-May.

Mize has a 4.43 ERA in 13 starts this season.

"It's easy when you have everything," Mize said. "It's not as easy when you're misfiring and some stuff isn't clicking. To be able to have a pretty good day on the scoreboard when you feel like you don't have your elite stuff, it's rewarding."

The Nationals scored their only run against Mize in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly from Ildemaro Vargas. After the sacrifice fly, the inning ended when catcher Jake Rogers threw out Luis García Jr. trying to steal second base. (The Nationals scored their second and final run off right-handed reliever Shelby Miller in the seventh inning.)

Mize pitched out of trouble in the second and third innings.

Vargas, a left-handed hitter, grounded out on a down-and-away splitter in the second to leave a runner on third base; Jesse Winker, another lefty, grounded out on a down-and-away slider in the third to strand leave runners on the corners.

Mize then retired the final seven batters he faced.

"I feel like I moved the fastball around a good bit, up and down, in and out," Mize said. "I tried to really hone in that fastball command. I threw some sliders and splits at the bottom of the zone in some disadvantage counts or to lead off the at-bat that I got some weak contact on, which I was pretty pleased with. I think it was a better mix and a little bit better execution across the board."

He generated his three whiffs with two sliders and one splitter. The combination of his four-seam fastball and two-seam fastball didn't miss any bats for the second start in a row, spanning 97 fastballs/sinkers thrown.

JHen goes deep

Before the double, Malloy crushed a middle-up slider from Law for a 407-foot solo home run to left field. He punished the ball with a 107.9 mph exit velocity.

It was the second homer of Malloy's career, and the first at Comerica Park.

Malloy, hitting .217 in nine games, finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs and one strikeout. He was hit by a pitch in the second inning and struck out swinging to leave the bases loaded in the third inning.

"Redemption is always cool," Malloy said. "You never like striking out in those moments where you can score runs, but it's flushing that and being in the moment in the next at-bat. It paid off."

The Tigers grabbed a 1-0 lead on Canha's RBI single in the third inning against left-hander Patrick Corbin.

Corbin, a star in the Nationals' 2019 World Series championship who entered Thursday's game with a 5.80 ERA in his previous 107 starts, performed well against the Tigers. He allowed one run on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts across 5⅓ innings, throwing 94 pitches.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers avoid sweep with 7-2 win over Washington Nationals