LAKELAND, Fla. -- The curveball from Matthew Boyd buckled promising Pirates shortstop Cole Tucker as it dropped onto the corner, coaxing a called third strike from plate umpire Joe West. It was Boyd’s fifth strikeout of the Tigers' 4-1 win over the Pirates on Tuesday, and his second strikeout of the day on the curve.

Boyd had struck out three of Pittsburgh’s first six hitters on three different pitches, including Tucker swinging and missing at a 93 mph fastball to end the second inning after John Ryan Murphy whiffed on a changeup two batters earlier.

This is what Boyd is looking for when he talks about being a four-pitch pitcher again.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Boyd said, “and that’s the awesome part about spring is opening your eyes and saying, ‘I can do that.’ In season, you want to put yourself in the best position to have success. The cool part about right now is you can go out there and compete with everything. And now, I can do this.”

The lone run Boyd allowed on Tuesday scored on his 67th and final pitch, a bloop single into right field from Socrates Brito, two batters after Boyd had dropped the curveball on Tucker. He spent the final few innings mixing in more curveballs, often sandwiched between fastballs but in Tucker’s case following a changeup.

The curveball has been a work in progress for Boyd since the end of last season.

“Last year we started on it a little bit,” pitching coach Rick Anderson, “but he was having such a year with the slider, I didn’t want him to take away from his bread and butter to do that. That was a topic in the winter.”

One of the keys to the curveball design for Anderson was to make sure the shape and the plane differed from Boyd’s slider. Pitchers can sometimes struggle to find a workable slider and curveball without the two pitches looking too much like each other.

“It’s a very usable pitch,” Anderson said.

Eventually, of course, Boyd has to use it in games that count. The old version comprised just four percent of his pitches in 2019; three of the seven hits off of it were home runs.

Boyd might not throw it as often in the regular season as he did Tuesday. But if he believes in it enough to throw it in different counts, it could improve his home-run rate and his overall game.

“All you are trying to do is mess up timing,” Boyd said. “If you mess up timing just a little bit, that’s all you are trying to achieve.”

Maybin finding his swing
Cameron Maybin entered Tuesday’s game having gone 1-for-20 this spring, interrupted for a few days in the middle to work on his swing. His home run in Tuesday's win -- even for a veteran who has learned not to make too much of Spring Training results -- was a positive reinforcement.

“The last few days, I’ve been hitting a lot more balls hard,” Maybin said. “I’m just trying to get some hard contact, just continue to stay diligent, get those little kinks out. I try to stay process-based and not result-based. It’s a process, and like I told you guys earlier, I make sure I use spring for what it is, and that’s to get ready and get those little things straightened out.”

Maybin hit an offspeed pitch out Tuesday. He crushed fastballs last season with the Yankees, but had a decent average against a wide variety of pitches during his last tenure with the Tigers in 2016, according to Statcast.

Three-batter minimum looms
The three-batter minimum rule for Major League pitchers goes into effect on Thursday, when the Tigers return to action against the Braves. And while manager Ron Gardenhire worries about the risk of overtaxing pitchers in Spring Training, he and Anderson are thinking about its impact on the bullpen mix and the relievers they’re reviewing.

“The only thing I see where it’s going to be more difficult is late in the game when you’re trying to match up, left-left, right-right, whatever it is,” Anderson said. “That’s what’s going to be a little interesting. But with that, I think you have to have a 'pen [of pitchers] that can get right and left. …

“I always thought it was fun late in the game to play matchups. Now, you have to try to match up for three hitters instead of one.”

The key with a young bullpen, Anderson said, is to try to develop a pitch for a lefty to retire a righty and vice versa. Lefty Gregory Soto made his case that matchups don’t matter for him with a clean two-strikeout ninth inning that began with a 100 mph fastball.

Up next
After an off-day on Wednesday, the Tigers and Spencer Turnbull get back to work on Thursday with a 1:05 p.m. ET game against the Braves at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland. Turnbull has allowed one run on two hits over eight innings in three starts this spring with help from his power two-seamer. The game can be heard on AM 1270 in Detroit and Gameday Audio.