A few hours after his manager dismissed the idea of fatigue in August, and a week removed from his third 'lethargic' start this month, Casey Mize took the mound on a hot night in St. Louis and wiped the slate clean. The 24-year-old held the Cardinals to three hits in five innings and hardly broke a sweat, because that's what 24-year-olds do. He looked fresh, like maybe this marathon was just beginning.
"If we get to where we want to get to," A.J. Hinch said prior to Detroit's 4-3 win over the Cardinals, "this isn’t even the stretch run yet."
From the looks of it, the dreaded dog days were catching up to Mize in his first full big-league season. Which would have made sense after he exceeded his previous high in innings pitched, a year after he made just seven starts in a season shortened by a pandemic. Like fellow rookie Tarik Skubal, Mize has entered "uncharted waters," said Hinch, "just pitching this deep into a season, this many starts in a row."
"So he’s gotta grind."
Mize entered Tuesday with a 6.08 ERA across three starts in August. Nothing looked easy, the way that it did earlier this summer. There was a hitch in his gait, like a runner toward the end of a race. In talks with pitching coach Chris Fetter, Mize realized "I wasn’t moving quick enough on the mound." He said "I just seemed slow and lethargic." So before his start in St. Louis, they worked on correcting this, on adding some urgency to his delivery, on "trying to be a little bit more explosive." Then he made quick work of the Cardinals. Grind?
What grind?
"It doesn't feel like much of a grind for me. I enjoy it," Mize said with a smile. "I’m having a lot of fun. I don’t want this season to end. It’s not like I’m counting down the days or the starts. I feel like I could keep going for a long time. Tarik and I were actually talking about that a couple days ago, like, 'The dog days of August or September or whatever.' Neither of us feel that at all. I feel good."
For all the talk about protecting young arms, young arms are strong. They're built to exceed their own limits. Mize and Skubal are the young arms the Tigers are leaning on most. The club limited their innings earlier this season so that the duo could feel what it's like to pitch later in the year, because the year doesn't get late until the weather gets cold. In the race the Tigers hope to start running next season, the finish line is still miles away.
"This is just August," Hinch said before Tuesday's game. "I’m not going to allow guys to start talking about being tired and mentally exhausted in August. We haven’t even hit the stretch run where we’re going to expect you to be good and then good again in October. I’ve watched guys have five and six starts in October, so that’s the standard that we’re going to live by mentally."
Hinch watched a 34-year-old Justin Verlander, after 33 starts and 206 innings in the regular season, make five starts in October to help the Astros win the 2017 World Series. Two years later, after 34 starts and 223 innings and another Cy Young award, Hinch watched Verlander make six starts in October as the Astros fell one win shy of another ring. October is on the horizon for the Tigers. Whenever it arrives, Mize wants to be hitting his stride.
"That was a big part of why we designed the shortened starts and the (extra time) between starts, so we could feel a full September," said Mize. "If I were to be shut down a week from now and we’re in October next year, that’s a whole month and a half, on top (of October), of me not knowing what that feels like. The goal here is to try to get through September so that jump is not so big whenever we are in those October games."
If there's been a mental challenge this season for Mize, it's that the physical challenge hasn't been as steep as he'd like. As much as he understood it, he hated making those three- or four-inning starts in July. He hates waiting as long as a week between starts in August. In October, the best pitchers are asked to go on short rest. Mize will relish that challenge when it comes. As far as the grind and the dog days and uncharted waters, it's never been a challenge at all.
"It’s definitely not the length of the season," he said. "I’m enjoying myself and feel good."