LAKELAND, Fla. -- Justin Verlander can get zoned in on his outings and his pitching when he’s on the mound, but he made a point to thank the rookie Kevin McGonigle for his diving play at third base and throw from foul territory.
“Great play,” Verlander said after his 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Tuesday’s 1-1 tie with the Orioles at Joker Marchant Stadium. “I told him so in the dugout, told him again [later]. That was a really nice play, nice to see. Those are the plays as a starting pitcher, man, you’re like, ‘Oh, boy.’”
McGonigle, starting at third base on Tuesday, continues to demonstrate that his defense should not be a question mark in whether he makes the Major League roster for Opening Day. Coby Mayo’s second-inning ground ball tested him right down the third-base line. McGonigle, who has made pre-pitch positioning a key part of his work, was in position to get a big first step towards the line and then move back on the ball towards the edge of the infield dirt.
”Just never quitting on the play is really important there,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He got a really good break on it.”
McGonigle dove to stop the ball in foul territory well behind the bag. It seemed enough to hold Mayo to an infield single. But he wasn’t finished; he got up and unleashed a throw across the infield, allowing first baseman Colt Keith to snag the ball on the hop without having to stretch to his limit.
”That’s the difference between a leadoff double and an out,” Verlander continued. “That can make the difference in a ballgame. Those are just huge momentum shifts for me. I make a decent pitch. The guy hits it kind of hard, but it’s right down the line. You really don’t want that to squeak in there. Even if he would’ve just held it to a single, I would’ve said, ‘Great play.’ But to get an out out of it, it’s a momentum booster.”
McGonigle nearly made another highlight stop later in the game, nearly robbing Ryan Mountcastle before the ball squeaked by him and into left field for a single.
A day earlier against the Phillies, McGonigle made a heads-up play at shortstop to turn a Justin Crawford fly ball to left into a 7-6-4 double play. Second baseman Jace Jung noticed Christian Cairo trying to tag up from first base and broke for second. McGonigle collected the throw from left fielder Wenceel Pérez and immediately turned to second, throwing in just enough time for Jung to apply the tag.
“The first half of the camp, I was begging for the ball hit to him. And now he’s getting one hit to him virtually every game, wherever we put him,” Hinch said. “Good, productive day on defense for him.”
Brieske out with left groin strain
Beau Brieske’s bid to regain his slot in the Tigers' bullpen will have to wait until during the season. The 2024 postseason contributor will open the season on the 15-day injured list after suffering a left adductor strain during normal mound drills last weekend, according to the Tigers.
It’s the latest injury setback for Brieske, who pitched in just 22 games for Detroit early last season and struggled while pitching through an ankle sprain, then spent June in Triple-A Toledo and missed the second half of the season with a flexor tendon strain. He made just three Grapefruit League appearances this spring and had just returned from back spasms with a scoreless inning against the Pirates last Friday when he suffered the adductor injury.
“He was just working on a delivery and slipped,” Hinch said, “and now he’s out. I feel for him because of the work he put in to get himself back. We celebrated getting him through the full inning in a game [last Friday]. This feels rather random although it can happen, and it’s happening at the worst time for his availability at the beginning of the season.”
If there’s good news for Brieske, it’s that this is not an arm injury, and that he didn’t injure his arm trying to pitch through it. Still, it’s pitching time lost to try to get back in form.
“Long term, not concerned,” Hinch said. “These things heal and he can get back on the mound. But frustrating, to say the least.”