Detroit Tigers' Kenta Maeda, Reese Olson pitch against Baltimore Orioles in 4-4 tie

LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers tied the Baltimore Orioles, 4-4, on Sunday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.

The Tigers are 15-8-2 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

A pair of home runs made the difference.

Right-hander Kenta Maeda, who built his pitch count and increased his fastball velocity in his fourth start, lasted 4⅓ innings while allowing three hits, of which two were home runs to right field by Kyle Stowers. The first of Stowers' blasts was aided by a strong wind blowing to right field.

Stowers launched his third home run of the game to left-center off right-hander Reese Olson. That shot put the Orioles ahead, 4-1, in the seventh inning.

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Center fielder Parker Meadows had an impressive game, finishing 1-for-2 with one walk. He stole second base after drawing a walk in the third inning, and he turned a single into a double with smart baserunning in the fifth.

That inning, Meadows — a left-handed hitter — battled with left-handed reliever Cionel Pérez. He poked a slider on the outside part of the plate into shallow right-center, hustled out of the batter's box and kept running hard. Meadows caught center fielder Colton Cowser sleeping and ended up safe on second.

Meadows, an elite defender in center, continues to look comfortable at the plate in spring training.

Starting off

Maeda dominated with his secondary pitches.

His fastball, though, averaged 90.1 mph in his fourth start of spring training, an increase from 89.2 mph in his third start, 89.5 mph in his second start and 89.3 in his first start. The increased velocity, as well as the improved command, is an encouraging sign as Maeda inches closer to the regular season.

Maeda averaged 91 mph with his fastball last season.

His secondary pitches — slider and splitter — guided him to seven strikeouts: Ryan McKenna (swinging strike, 83 mph splitter), Nick Maton (swinging strike, 78.8 mph slider), Connor Norby (swinging strike, 82.9 mph splitter), Jordan Westburg (swinging strike, 82.8 mph splitter), Heston Kjerstad (swinging strike, 83.3 mph splitter), Tyler Nevin (called strike, 90.4 mph fastball) and Maton (swinging strike, 78.7 mph slider).

Maeda struck out three of five batters in the fourth inning. In the other matchups, he walked McKenna on four pitches with two outs and gave up a two-run home run to Stowers on a down-and-away splitter.

That home run, unlike Stowers' first, didn't need any help from the wind.

Maeda used 27 sliders, 23 splitters, 22 fastballs and two curveballs. He generated 14 swings and misses with seven sliders and seven splitters. He threw 48 of 74 pitches for strikes.

At the plate

The Tigers scored their first run in the third inning when Riley Greene hit a ground-ball single against right-hander Julio Teheran to drive in Meadows. The run was set up by Meadows, who walked, swiped second base and scored easily on Greene's hard-hit grounder through the infield.

Mark Canha cranked a two-out double to put runners on the corners, but Colt Keith flew out to left to end the third. In the second inning, the Tigers picked up three consecutive one-out singles from Keith, Javier Báez and Zach McKinstry, but Andy Ibáñez grounded into a double play.

Teheran, an ex-Tiger, tossed four innings of one-run ball on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts.

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Bligh Madris cut the Tigers' deficit to 4-2 with a solo home run to right-center field in the eighth. He turned on an up-and-in 90.5 mph sinker from left-handed reliever Andrew Suárez.

Three batters later, the Tigers tied the game, 4-4, on Ryan Kreidler's two-run home run off Suárez's middle-away fastball. Kreidler pushed the fastball over the fence in right-center field with two outs. Ryan Vilade set the table for Kreidler's game-tying homer by working a five-pitch walk.

On the mound

Right-handed reliever Jason Foley recorded two outs to finish the fifth inning. After that, Olson completed the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings in his fifth appearance of spring training.

Olson allowed one run on two hits and zero walks with three strikeouts across four innings, throwing 43 of 65 pitches for strikes. He gave up the third home run to Stowers in the seventh.

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The Orioles threatened with one out in the ninth when a fly ball from Angel Tejada deflected off the head of center fielder Akil Baddoo. Tejada legged out a triple on the play, and although Baddoo was shaken up and received a visit from one of the trainers, he stayed in the game.

Olson struck out TT Bowens swinging on back-to-back changeups for the second out, then stranded the runner at third base when Anthony Severino hit a weak grounder for the third out.

He threw 19 changeups, 18 fastballs, 12 sliders, 10 sinkers and six curveballs. He generated 10 whiffs with six changeups, one fastball, two sliders and one sinker. His fastball averaged 95.4 mph.

Three stars

1. Meadows, 2. Maeda, 3. Olson.

Next up

Tuesday (6:05 p.m.) vs. Philadelphia Phillies in Lakeland.

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' Kenta Maeda, Reese Olson control Orioles in 4-4 tie