NEW YORK — The morning before one of the best starts of Matt Manning’s professional career, Manning stood in front of his locker and shrugged. Here was a pitcher who was shunned from the Opening Day roster by the smallest of margins. He was up with the Detroit Tigers for a spot start thanks to the whims of mother nature. He was pitching the second game of a doubleheader, and baseball tradition dictates pitchers do not speak with reporters on the days of their starts. Manning, however, practically invited the conversation. His actual start was still several hours away.
“I think all you guys kind of know exactly how I’m feeling about (getting sent down),” Manning said. “But I’m taking it. The last thing I want to do is be a hurt to this team. … They’re on a roll. Anything I can contribute, that’s what I’ll do.”
It was less than two weeks ago when the Tigers informed Manning he would not be heading north with the major-league team. His locker was cleaned out and his stuff was whisked away, with the omnipresent reminder that this game is fluid and Manning’s services would be needed at some point in the near future.
That near future arrived sooner than expected after back-to-back rainouts. Manning, who had already made one start for Triple-A Toledo, arrived in New York with a surprising zen about his situation.
“I’ll throw the second game and I’ll be sent back down there and I’ll keep getting to work with (Triple-A pitching coach Doug Bochtler) and all those guys,” Manning said. “It’s a time where I can literally go down and be like, ‘Am I here to play baseball as a business, or do I enjoy playing baseball?’ I feel like that’s what I found out down in Toledo. I enjoy competing. I enjoy playing baseball.”
Manning has previously been known as an emotional pitcher, one not afraid to strut around the mound after a strikeout or to throw his glove in frustration after an ersatz outing. But here this calm and humbled Manning went about his business in clinical fashion. Although his first-pitch command was not exactly perfect, he leaned heavily on his revamped sweeper, succeeded with the usual deception on his fastball and kept getting out after out. Five and two-thirds innings in, the New York Mets had not recorded a hit.
We hear from Matt Manning, who held the Mets hitless for 5.2 innings in game two of the Tigers doubleheader. #RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/K7mNWePcbY
— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) April 4, 2024
Here, then, as A.J. Hinch headed out to the mound to remove his starter after 90 pitches, was Manning’s first real display of fervor. He practically, and understandably, groaned as Hinch emerged from the dugout, his shot at history taken by the gods who dictate pitch counts. It was last summer when Manning went 5 2/3 innings in the Tigers’ combined no-hitter. Now, for the second time in less than a year, Manning would watch from inside as his bullpen had the chance to finish the job.
“It was a no-brainer,” Hinch said. “We’re trying to win the game, and that was the best route there.”
The man who got the call was Tyler Holton, the left-handed reliever the Tigers claimed from the Arizona Diamondbacks last year and who quickly emerged as a sensation. Holton posted a 2.11 ERA for the Tigers last season and has held his form so far in 2024. Holton dispatched his first four hitters, but in the eighth inning, Harrison Bader hit a glorified blooper that fell in left field.
There would be no history, but Manning’s start was still emblematic of the Tigers’ sudden pitching prowess in a sixth consecutive nailbiter with runs coming at a premium. Manning has allowed two or fewer hits in each of his past four MLB starts.
“He had to battle the entire day,” Hinch said. “Kind of fought his delivery, fought his command, but still worked his way through the lineup and gave us everything he had … If those are his days where he’s grinding, that’s pretty good, because we’ll take those results every time.”
In the first leg of that doubleheader, Casey Mize — once Manning’s counterpart as symbols of the Tigers’ future — pitched a major-league game for the first time in 721 days. Mize, though his final line was blemished with three earned runs, powered his fastball and displayed the wicked splitters that had eluded him before Tommy John surgery and a separate back procedure. Mize’s stuff was arguably the best it has been in the big-league career of the former No. 1 overall pick. In a case opposite of Manning’s, the final line didn’t quite reflect how good Mize was.
Casey Mize, 96mph Fastball and 87mph Splitter, Overlay pic.twitter.com/MJMamYpu5G
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 4, 2024
“I think I did some things today that I really, really liked and I was happy to see,” Mize said. “I think the split was a really good pitch for me today. I liked my fastball a lot. I think I should have thrown it more than I did.”
Mize handed the ball off to the bullpen, where Joey Wentz, Alex Lange, Andrew Chafin, Jason Foley and Shelby Miller held the Mets hitless for the game’s final six innings. By the time Bader’s ball found grass in Game 2, the Mets had gone 13 innings without a base hit.
But some things can’t last forever. In the ninth inning of Game 2, the Mets rallied and walked it off on a Tyrone Taylor line drive to left field off Alex Faedo. The 2-1 win put a damper on an otherwise terrific road trip. The Tigers finished their three-game series in Flushing having allowed only five runs.
The offense may be a concern, but right now, the Tigers’ pitching staff looks exceptional. How is this for depth? Detroit’s sixth starter just no-hit the New York Mets for 5 2/3 innings. After the game, he was optioned back to Triple-A Toledo.
“I just told (Hinch) I got a lot to button up before I face the Indianapolis Indians,” Manning said.
(Photo of Matt Manning: Rich Schultz / Getty Images)
