ATLANTA -- Casey Mize's start came to an early end Tuesday night at Truist Park, as right groin tightness forced the Detroit Tigers right-hander out in the third inning of a 5-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
The injury added another concern for a Tigers pitching staff already dealing with multiple absences this season with seven pitchers on the IL.
In the bottom of the second, Mize earned his third strikeout of the night with a 94.2 mph four seamer down and in to Dominic Smith, with Mize walking a bit awkwardly around the edge of the mound after his delivery. The last strike call was confirmed after an ABS challenge by Smith, which allowed Mize to stretch a bit before continuing pitching.
“It wasn't like a one pitch, like grab thing, it was kind of like a gradual tightening up a little bit. So I made it through that inning,” Mize said. “Then we did some tests on it in between innings, and felt like good enough to go back out there, but it kind of just never really went away.”
In the bottom of the third inning, Mize had already surrendered an RBI double to Ronald Acuña Jr., giving the Braves a 1-0 lead. Moments later, Drake Baldwin stepped in and made weak contact on an 86.1 mph splitter, sending a slow chopper up the first-base line.
Mize quickly came off the mound to field it to first. While the play itself didn’t immediately signal anything unusual, Mize’s reaction did. The right-hander looked to be in discomfort after the throw, prompting a visit from the Tigers’ staff.
“It didn’t necessarily get worse. It just knew this is not feeling great,” Mize said. “So, they could see that with my body language, so they came out and visited, and we decided [to leave the game].”
Following a brief conversation on the mound, Detroit made the decision to remove Mize from the game with what was later diagnosed with right groin tightness. Left-hander Brant Hurter was called in from the bullpen.
“He came up pretty tentative and he wanted to throw a pitch, but we're not going to mess with that in April,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “And just given how he was describing how he was feeling, we took him out of the game. He'll get checked out. I have no idea the severity or anything like that, yet.”
Hurter allowed a sacrifice fly to center field that extended Atlanta’s lead to 2-0.
Mize finished with two runs allowed on three hits over 2 1/3 innings, striking out three on 34 pitches. He entered the night with a 2.90 ERA after his previous outing went six innings with seven strikeouts, three hits and one run allowed.
The right-hander is scheduled for additional testing, and the Tigers are expected to have more clarity in the coming days.
“I've had some hamstring issues and never a groin, you know. So that's new for me, but we'll get some tests tomorrow [and] see what we're looking at,” Mize said. “I feel pretty good about things ... but we'll know more tomorrow after we get a picture taken. But just the test we've done so far seem pretty positive, [and] tomorrow, we'll have -- literally -- a much clearer picture on what we're looking at.”
Mize has a history of left hamstring issues, including a two-month stint on the 60-day injured list in 2024 and a mild strain in May 2025.