Miguel Cabrera leads a home run parade against the Yankees

The Detroit Tigers welcomed the New York Yankees into Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium on Thursday and ultimately sent them packing by a score of 15-11. The games don’t count, but it was an impressive day at the plate for a club that was starved for power like few others in 2019.

The Tigers started Casey Mize in this one, and with Matt Manning and Alex Faedo also scheduled to pitch, the odds of a fun watch were high to begin with. However the offense stole the show, launching nine home runs in this one.

Strong winds blowing out to center field helped, but there were plenty of no-doubters as well, including two of them from Miguel Cabrera in consecutive at-bats. No doubt he took a cue from one Travis Demeritte, who prefaced each of Cabrera’s blasts with one of his own. Demeritte has been rolling lately as he fights for a spot on the Opening Day roster. Taking on Gerrit Cole no less, the duo went back-to-back in both the first and the second innings before Cole exited the contest.

This one was a vintage 475 foot monster shot from the big fella in the first inning.

That was a nice way to give young Casey Mize some run support today. He didn’t need a lot of help. Mize spun a pair of clean innings, allowing just a walk while punching out a pair of Yankees.

Mize touched 97 mph, and used his twoseam fastball and slider heavily, breaking out the splitter only to put hitters away.

Alex Faedo took over from Mize, and promptly punched out the first two hitters he faced. Unfortunately, his outing went sideways at that point, and Sandy Baez had to clean it up with two runs in for New York.

John Schreiber allowed a pair of runs in the fourth, and wasn’t sharp, giving up three walks along the way. Matt Manning took over in the fifth, and while he looked impressive at times, it didn’t go well for him either despite ultimately collecting the win.

Manning looked fired up for the task as he faced Gary Sanchez and dusted him with high velocity heat for his first strikeout of the day. Unfortunately, a single by Clint Frazier and then a home run from Kyle Higshioka shook him up and he allowed two more runs before escaping the inning. Manning did settle down and spun a quick 1-2-3 inning in the sixth inning, blowing Gio Urshela away in the process. He also left a lot of people gawking at the velocity readings as he touched triple digits along the way.

All in all, it was a highly enjoyable contest in one of the few televised games we’ve seen so far this spring. Beyond Cabrera and Demeritte, catcher Jake Rogers and his new swing saw results as he homered for the second game in a row.

The Tigers were gracious enough to put together a super cut of all nine home runs. Enjoy.