Tigers right-hander Matt Manning through 6 2/3 hitless innings yesterday, combining with Jason Foley and Alex Lange to throw the ninth no-hitter in franchise history. While the decision to pull a starter in the midst of a no-hitter is always a controversial one, manager A.J. Hinch shed additional light on the decision following yesterday’s game, noting to reporters (including Chris McCosky of The Detroit News) that Manning had been struggling through the outing and was evaluated by team trainers between each inning. Manning expanded on Hinch’s comments, noting that he tweaked his side during the second inning. Fortunately, it appears Manning avoided a more serious injury, and the 25-year-old hurler will have the opportunity to rest during the All Star break ahead of the second half.
The Tigers also offered an update regarding left-hander Tyler Alexander today. Alexander was placed on the 60-day injured list with a left lat/shoulder strain last week, a move that seemingly indicated the lefty’s season could be in jeopardy. Following an MRI, the club has more clarity regarding Alexander’s timeline for return. Per McCosky, Alexander will avoid surgery but be shut down for three months. He’ll resume a throwing program in October that should leave him able to return in time for Spring Training in 2024. Alexander had posted a 4.50 ERA and 4.13 FIP in 44 innings of work across 25 appearances this season.
More from around the AL Central…
- Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press) that second baseman Jorge Polanco is expected to start a rehab assignment in the near future as he recovers from a hamstring strain he suffered early last month. Polanco has been limited to just 30 games this season and has slashed .250/.291/.450 when healthy enough to play. While Polanco has been out, youngster Edouard Julien has filled in at the keystone very well with an impressive .264/.345/.273 slash line in 149 plate appearances this season.
- White Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi has been dealing with a right wrist issue recently, which Scott Merkin of MLB.com says has been “addressed” according to manager Pedro Grifol. Benintendi hasn’t played since Friday, but is expected to return to action after the All Star break in Atlanta. Benintendi hasn’t been as impactful this season as the White Sox were surely hoping when they signed him to a five-year deal this past offseason, slashing .280/.347/.369 with just one home run in 314 plate appearances, good for a roughly league average wRC+ of 99. The Sox entered play today with a record of just 38-53 this season, but are surely hoping an extended rest for Benintendi ahead of the midsummer classic will allow him to return healthy and more impactful in the second half.
Julien has a .473 slug% not a .273 as the article says
Soxx – Since you went there, Manning threw … not “through”. And it sure would have been nice if the opposing team was mentioned.
Yeah, not one of the better articles I’ve seen. Maybe the summer heat is getting to Nick.
Benintendi is doing basically what he did for the Royals and then the Yankees after the trade last year—not a lot of pop, not a lot of impact. He’s not a bad player, but definitely not anywhere near a frontline one. Maybe he picks it up, but he’s never come close to equalling his 2018 peak–and that peak was a very valuable but not shoot-the-lights-out 4.8 BWAR
Yep, that 2017-18 span is looking more and more like it was a career peak. Looks like Benintendi’s going to be an injury-prone singles hitter from here on out, not the gap/line drive guy he was before….
I was shocked to see he’s only 29, seems to play a lot older (he just turned 29 a couple days ago…)
“Tigers right-hander Matt Manning through 6 2/3 hitless innings yesterday, combining with Jason Foley and Alex Lange to throw the ninth no-hitter in franchise history.”
The above is not a sentence.
It’s the wrong spelling of “threw” but it’s still a sentence. I’m sure you knew what it meant
It’s absolutely not a sentence.
We know what it indicates.
You’re right, but, as long as we can understand what the author is saying, it’s Ok.
It’s really not ok though. Words are important and to accept poor communication skills and a lack of professionalism dimishes society as a whole.
@nottingham “Dimishes” is not a word.
Dimishes is what you eat your TV dinner on late night after the lights go down
It’s the Chinese Spellcheck Conspiracy AKA CPC. I’ve had to deal with it for years……
@nottingham. Use of dimishes reflects poor communication skills and a lack of professionalism.
Can you diagram the ‘sentence’ for us?
But the above is a no hitter which us what counts for Tigers fans!
Tigger pitchers pitch a no hitter and they can’t even get a coherent sentence out of the accomplishment. Why Tigger fans can’t have nice things
From the dude who can’t form a complete sentence himself or spell Tigers. Oh wait that was sarcasm! A no hitter is a no hitter and you can’t take the shine off it.
Which “us” what counts.
Benintendi hit 17 HR’s in 2021 and has hit 6 since. Not sure if he has changed his batting stance yet again but there is no power in his bat at all this season
The Tigers will miss the strike throwing ability of Alexander.
After two straight years of losing the equivalent of our whole pitching staff I hope the baseball gods give us a break next year! Hopefully Alexander makes it back before years end.
Yeah they miss Alexander must better than that good for nothing loud mouth Smoltz
Tough loss for the Tigers today keeping them under 40 wins. Time to switch Foley and Lange ? It could very well happen after the break. Still who knows ? The Tiger season is a total work in progress, how long anyone stays in what role or order is up for grabs. Home run derby here we come !
Lange has had some blowups recently, hopefully the time off at the break will help him. Foley should be our all star rep. It would make sense to give him a try. Both are high leverage situations anyway.
Yes Foley would have been a nice one to go. Only 20 combined no hitters in the history of baseball, so this team is really unpredictable. Manning looked great in the game. Perhaps this will be his first 100 inning season ? It’ll be close, but we can look forward to next year with a lot of the young pitchers. Next season will be better, draft night tonight !
I’m definitely not taking anything away from the Tigers, but that strike zone was one of the largest I’ve seen all year. The pitchers still had to make their pitches, and often for strike 3, the Tigers threw to a “normal” zone. Still, even watching on TV it was difficult for me to tell how big the zone would be pitch to pitch.
Twins fans want Falvey fired, this organization is going no where with him in charge!
You can make a team of recent twins departures:
C Mitch Garver
1B LaMonte Wade
2B Arraez
SS ehh Palacios, gio urshela
3B Spencer Steer
LF Brent rooker
CF _ Byron the tin man_
RF Luke Raley
DH : CES.
Pitchers ::: Tyler Wells , yennier Cano Danny coulumbe, Taylor Rogers, Zach Littel, JT Chargois to name a few…
Even Ryan Pressly trade has netted them about .3 war for berto Celestino and alcala who has a non- attached right arm
Other than Pablo Lopez, the Twins have gotten nothing for those guys. But helped clear cap room for Correa…
Emilio Pagan
Was it a wrist injury that sapped Benintendi’s power or a coincidence that his peak slugging percentage was from that 2018 cheating Sox team? Seems alot of those Sox players peaked in 2018 lol. Cheaters!
Benintendi was not brought in to be a power bat for this club, he was brought in to get on base (or at least that is what the Sox should have been looking for). He is still better out there than Eloy, but Eloy is stubborn and still found ways to get injured being a DH. Sox over paid for Benintendi, but they also assumed that Jimenez , Moncada, Anderson, and Robert would all have bounce back years or ‘reach their potential’. Only Robert seems to have found his groove, only to lose it and start swinging at everything that comes up to him at the plate.
At this point, if Im a pitching coach for a team against the Sox I would tell my staff that, to beat the Sox, don’t throw a strike to them. If you do throw a strike, don’t use a fastball, they’ll get themselves out. I have heard all season” This pitcher is bad, his ERA is 5+, his team record with him pitching is sub 500, etc etc only to own the Sox when facing them. The Sox need to look at what the Yankees did, get rid of their hitting coach if they think he is not doing his job.
What Im wondering is: Where the superfans are that said the ‘naysayers’ would all be wrong and that the Sox would be over .500 and be in first place in the division by the All Star Break?
Benintendi should be batting second and the CWS need to find someone who could actually steal a base to lead off….CWS have a perfect storm brewing of a bunch of players who once had value (Anderson/Jimenez) not performing and walking around smiling and jumping around after they do one good thing and still down by 5 runs.