Detroit Tigers' Matt Manning throws four innings, cruises past Atlanta Braves in 6-1 win
LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-1, in Friday's split-squad game at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. The Tigers played the other half of the split squad against the Toronto Blue Jays at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, winning 9-6 behind a grand slam from Keston Hiura.
The Tigers are 14-8-1 in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
Right-hander Matt Manning faced some of the best hitters from the Braves, the best offense in baseball last season: Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson and Orlando Arcia.
Manning made the difficult challenge seem simple, firing four scoreless innings with four strikeouts. The 26-year-old maintained his average strikeout and whiff rates from his previous three starts, both significantly improved from his results last season.
Manning, who faced 13 hitters and threw 63 pitches, allowed just one hit and one walk to the Braves.
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The Tigers, meanwhile, rocked Braves right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver, a 21-year-old ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 1 prospect in the Braves' farm system and the No. 69 prospect in baseball. Smith-Shawver allowed five runs on eight hits across three innings, with zero walks and three strikeouts.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Spencer Torkelson's RBI double and never looked back. Gio Urshela delivered a single, advanced to second base on a passed ball, moved up to third base on Riley Greene's groundout and scored on Torkelson's two-bagger. Torkelson connected on a middle-down changeup from Smith-Shawver with two strikes and two outs.
He impacted the ball with a 109.4 mph exit velocity.
Starting off
Manning gave up a leadoff single to Harris.
He has allowed five hits in spring training, of which the first four hits were home runs. The homer streak was snapped with Harris' single, and after that, Manning didn't give up another hit.
Manning struck out four batters: Albies (swinging strike, 94.3 mph fastball) and Arcia (swinging strike, 84.1 mph slider) in the first inning and Eli White (swinging strike, 88.4 mph changeup) and Harris (swinging strike, 83.3 mph slider) in the third inning.
He got six of his 11 whiffs in the first inning.
Matt Olson worked a six-pitch walk in the fourth inning, but Manning erased the Braves' second runner of the game with an inning-ending double play on a bouncer from Arcia back to the mound.
Manning, who threw 39 of 63 pitches for strikes, used 30 fastballs, 22 sliders, nine changeups and two curveballs. He generated 11 whiffs (on 36 swings) with five fastballs, five sliders and one changeup.
His fastball averaged 94.1 mph.
At the plate
Outfield prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy, who seems destined for Triple-A Toledo, crushed a hanging slider from Smith-Shawver in the second inning, putting the Tigers ahead 2-0.
He hit the ball 394 feet with a 100.1 mph exit velocity.
It was Malloy's second homer (and his eighth of nine hits) across 36 plate appearances in spring training.
The Tigers added three more runs in the third inning, thanks to hits from Parker Meadows (triple), Gio Urshela (RBI single), Greene (single) and Jace Jung (RBI single). The other run — aside from the Urshela and Jung singles — was accounted for on Torkelson's weak groundout.
Greene swung at a 3-0 fastball below the strike zone, tagging the ball with a 107.9 mph exit velocity.
Urshela finished 2-for-3 with one strikeout; Malloy went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts.
Riley Greene hits a single in the third inning.
He swung at a 3-0 fastball below the strike zone from right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver. Greene connected for a low line drive down the first-base line and into right field.
107.9 mph exit velocity. #Tigers pic.twitter.com/h9ws3qmX8U— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) March 15, 2024
Infield prospect Jace Jung hits an RBI single on a down-and-in changeup from right-hander AJ Smith-Shawver with two strikes and two outs in the third inning.
The #Tigers take a 5-0 lead. pic.twitter.com/SiySgAfxpq— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) March 15, 2024
On the mound
The Tigers brought right-hander Beau Brieske (two innings), left-hander Tyler Holton (one inning) and right-hander Jason Foley (one inning) out of the bullpen against the Braves.
Brieske, who threw 22 of 30 pitches for strikes, tossed two scoreless innings with one strikeouts.
Holton surrendered the only run of the game: a 401-foot solo home run from Arcia, off a 92.2 mph fastball. He has given up four runs across six innings in spring training, but he hasn't been wild with his pitches, recording seven strikeouts compared to one walk.
Foley hadn't pitched in a game in eight days while recovering from fatigue, but the flamethrower struck out three of four batters in the eighth inning: Nick Ward (swinging strike, 95.9 mph sinker), Landon Stephens (called strike, 100.4 mph sinker) and Ethan Workinger (swinging strike, 98 mph sinker.)
His sinker averaged 98.3 mph.
Three stars
1. Manning, 2. Foley, 3. Urshela.
Next up
Saturday (4:05 p.m.) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton.
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Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Matt Manning breezes past Atlanta Braves in 6-1 win
