The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians are about to get started in their American League Wild Card series, and to no one's surprise, Detroit will give the ball to Tarik Skubal in Game 1.
After that, it'll be Casey Mize in Game 2, who will either try to keep Detroit's season alive or pitch them into the ALDS. This comes after the Tigers left Mize off their postseason roster last year.
The snub, Mize said, was a motivating factor.
“It fueled a lot of my offseason work and the things I wanted to do to get better to never let that happen again,” Mize said, via Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic.
It worked. Mize produced his best season since 2021, going 14-6 with a 3.87 ERA and 1.268 WHIP. Even better, he has a 2.08 ERA in 17.1 innings over three starts against the Guardians this season.
Mize will make his postseason debut on Wednesday afternoon in a 1:08 p.m. ET start.
The Tigers give Jack Flaherty the nod in potential Game 3
If the Tigers vs. Guardians series goes the distance, Jack Flaherty will pitch for Detroit in a do-or-die Game 3.
The 29-year-old has had a rough follow-up to a strong 2024 season. He lost a league-high 15 games with a 4.64 ERA. His 3.85 FIP and 27.6% strikeout rate, however, suggest he still has the ability to be a front-end-quality starter who can turn it on in the postseason.
He went 0-3 against the Guardians this season with a 3.94 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 16 innings.
Flaherty also does not have the best postseason track record, though it's debatable how much that actually means. A member of the 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers World Series championship team, he pitched to a 7.36 ERA over 22 innings during last year's playoff run.
On the other side, the Guardians are expected to counter Mize and Flaherty with Tanner Bibee and Slade Cecconi respectively. Though Bibee boasts so-so numbers this year, he dominated the Tigers, earning a 0.95 ERA in three starts and 19 innings. Cecconi was also effective against Cleveland in two starts, allowing only three earned runs (2.25 ERA).
