DETROIT TIGERS NOTES:
TIGERS DROP OPENER TO PHILLIES: The Tigers lost the series opener to the Phillies, 8-3, last night. Nick Maton drove in all three runs for Detroit, hitting a three-run homer in the seventh inning. Zach McKinstry and Zack Short each added a hit in the game. Joey Wentz started for the Tigers and took the loss, allowing five runs on seven hits with five walks and four strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Chasen Shreve pitched 1.1 scoreless innings in relief, striking out two.
WELCOME BACK WOLFIE: Playing in his first regular season game against the Phillies since being traded last January, Nick Maton went 1×2 with a three-run homer, his sixth of the season, and a walk in last night’s game. Maton, who was drafted by the Phillies in the seventh round of the 2017 MLB Draft, appeared in 86 games with Philadelphia over the last two seasons, hitting .254/.330/.434 with nine doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 31 RBI.
ZACH ATTACK: Zach McKinstry reached base twice in last night’s game, going 1×3 with a walk. Dating back to May 8, he has reached base safely in 20 of his last 24 games, slashing .308/.433/.436 with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and five RBI. McKinstry ranks fourth in the American League and sixth in the Majors with a .433 on-base percentage in that span.
TIGERS AND PHILLIES: The Tigers and Phillies continue their only series of the season tonight. The two teams last met in 2019 with Philadelphia winning three-of-four games. Detroit has a 12-11 advantage in the all-time series, including a 5-4 edge in games played in Philadelphia.
INTERLEAGUE ACTION: The Tigers continue their interleague schedule tonight against the Phillies. Detroit is 11-6 against National League foes this season, including a 4-3 record against NL East teams. The Tigers have finished with a winning record against NL opponents in each of the last two seasons.
ON THE ROAD: The Tigers are 0-4 on their current six-game road trip, which includes three games at Chicago (AL) (0-3) and three games at Philadelphia (0-1). Detroit is 12-19 on the road this season. As a team, the Tigers are hitting .214/.288/.332 away from Comerica Park, while the pitching staff has a 4.48 ERA (269.0IP/134ER).
TIGERS ON THE IL:
- RHP Beau Brieske (right upper arm discomfort, 60-day IL on March 30, retroactive to March 27)
- OF Kerry Carpenter (right shoulder sprain, 10-day IL on April 29, retroactive to April 28)
- RHP Alex Faedo (right middle finger discomfort, 15-day IL on June 3, retroactive to May 31)
- OF Riley Greene (left fibula stress reaction, 10-day IL on May 31)
- RHP Matt Manning (right foot fracture, 60-day IL on April 12)
- OF Austin Meadows (anxiety, 60-day IL on April 8, retroactive to April 7)
- RHP Casey Mize (right elbow sprain, 60-day IL on February 17)
- RHP Freddy Pacheco (right elbow sprain, 60-day IL on March 27)
- LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (left index finger pulley rupture, 15-day IL on May 30, retroactive to May 29)
- LHP Tarik Skubal (left elbow strain, 60-day IL on March 14)
- RHP Spencer Turnbull (neck discomfort, 15-day IL on May 12, retroactive to May 7)
- OF Matt Vierling (low back soreness, 10-day IL on May 30, retroactive to May 29)
- RHP Trey Wingenter (right biceps tendinitis, 60-day IL on April 22, retroactive to April 19)
TONIGHT’S TIGERS STARTING PITCHER – #70 Tyler Alexander • 1-0, 6.38 ERA (24.0IP/17ER)
- Alexander will make his 17th appearance and first start of the season tonight at Philadelphia.
- Last pitched on May 29 against Texas, throwing a scoreless inning with one hit allowed and one strikeout.
- Will be making his first career appearance against the Phillies and at Citizens Bank Park tonight.
- Struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed only one run on six hits in 5.2 innings on April 14 vs. San Francisco.
- Has started 42 games in his career, posting a 4-19 record with a 4.73 ERA (196.0IP/103ER) and 145 strikeouts…in 69 relief appearances, he is 6-3 with a 4.16 ERA (125.1IP/58ER) and 107 strikeouts.
- Has issued just two walks in 24.0 innings this season…for his career, has walked 71 batters in 321.1 innings…since making his debut on July 3, 2019, he leads all active American League pitchers (min. 300 innings) in fewest walks allowed, while ranking fourth in walk rate (5.2%).
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES NOTES:
GAME #60 RECAP: With Rhys Hoskins in the dugout, the Phillies defeated the Detroit Tigers, 8-3, at an electric Citizens Bank Park … Starter Aaron Nola (W, 5-4) carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning – he went 7.0 innings and allowed 3 R (0 ER) on 1 hit with 3 walks and 12 strikeouts … Trea Turner homered twice and went 4-for-5 at the plate with 3 runs and 3 RBI … Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos each added 2 hits.
SEE THE BALL, HIT THE BALL, HARD: The Phillies enter play tonight having out-hit the opposition in six consecutive games (since 5/31) … Over the last three games, the Phillies have scored 23 runs and are batting .330 (35-106) with 6 doubles, 8 home runs and 16 walks to 24 strikeouts … Per Statcast, over the last three games, the Phillies have put 48 hard hit balls (95+ MPH) into play (14 on 6/3 at WSH, 18 on 6/4 at WSH & 16 last night vs DET) … It marks Philadelphia’s most hard hit balls in play over a three-game span in the Statcast era (since 2015) … The previous high for a three-game span was 47, done twice (both last season): July 29-31, 2022 (16 at PIT, 12 at PIT, 19 at PIT) and April 19-22, 2022 (12 at COL, 20 at COL, 15 vs MIL) … In June, the Phillies rank 1st in MLB in barrels with 17, 2nd in hard hit balls in play with 65 (best: TOR, 71) & hard hit rate at 48.5% (best: TOR, 54.6 %) and 4th in average exit velocity at 91.5 MPH (best: TOR, 92.1 MPH) … Eight of Philadelphia’s 11 best games for average exit velocity this season have come in the past 22 days (since 5/15).
TREA DAY: Last night, Trea Turner went 4-for-5 with 3 R, 2 HR and 3 RBI in an 8-3 Phils win … For Turner it was his 12th career multi-homer game (last: 7/16/22 at LAA) and first with the Phillies … Since first hitting in the cleanup spot on Saturday, Turner is 5-for-13 with 2 HR, 4 RBI and 1 BB to 1 SO … As laid out in the chart below, Turner has seen most offensive metrics/stats improve from month to month this season – he has increased his average exit velocity on balls in play from 86.5 MPH in April to 96.1 MPH in June and he has cut down on his swing and miss rate from 34.4% in April to 20.8% in June.
SCHWARBERFEST IS BACK: In the modern era (since 1900), 1,896 major league players have made at least 500 plate appearances in the month of June … Out of those 1,896, 10 players have a career SLG of .600 or greater in the month, and of those 10, eight players are enshrined in Cooperstown with the other two being Mike Trout and Kyle Schwarber … Lou Gehrig ranks 1st (.739 SLG), Babe Ruth 2nd (.710), Larry Walker 3rd (.641), Ted Williams 4th (.635), Hank Greenberg 5th (.621), Jim Thome 6th (.616), Jimmie Foxx 7th (.615), Mike Trout 8th (.606), Kyle Schwarber 9th (.605) and Rogers Hornsby 10th (.603) … Schwarber has 49 home runs in 479 career at bats during June and his 9.78 AB/HR average ranks 1st among all players in MLB since at least 1900 (min. 500 PA) – Babe Ruth ranks 2nd at 10.63 … Last June, Schwarber hit 12 home runs in 27 games and slashed .372/.385/.680 with a 1.065 OPS in 122 plate appearances as he was named National League Player of the Month, his second consecutive POM Award in June (also 2021 with WSH) … Over the last three months of June combined, Schwarber has 30 home runs (61 total hits, 49.1%) and is slashing .272/.373/.705 in 59 games (263 PA).
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE: Over his last two plus months and 241 plate appearances (since 4/4), Kyle Schwarber has posted a .784 OPS with 15 home runs and 44 walks to 69 strikeouts – in that span, Schwarber is running a .182 BABIP which ranks 106th out of the 106 MLB players with 200 PA in that stretch (Max Muncy ranks 105th with a .194 BABIP, 12 points higher than Schwarber) … Out of those same 106 players, Schwarber ranks 3rd with an 18.3% walk rate and T-5th in home runs (15) … Schwarber, who owns a career BABIP of .261, completed the month of May with the lowest BABIP recorded by a player with at least 100 plate appearances in a single month since at least 1901 (.065) – the only other MLB player since at least 1901 with a BABIP under .100 for a single month (min. 100 PA) was Gary Sheffield, who posted a .095 BABIP in September of 1999 for the Dodgers … Per Statcast, among all MLB players this year, Schwarber ranks in the 98th percentile in walk rate (17.1%), 92nd percentile in average exit velocity (92.6 MPH), 90th percentile in barrel rate (14.8%) and 86th percentile in hard hit rate (48.9%).
LET THE GOOD VIBES ROLL: Through 25 games at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies are averaging 39,205 in attendance per game which ranks 5th among all clubs in MLB behind only the Dodgers (47,916), Cardinals (39,968), Yankees (39,858) and Padres (39,288) … Of Philadelphia’s first 25 games at home, 13 have been sellouts (52%) and 17 have been over 35,000 (68%) … Among all clubs in MLB, the Phillies have the largest year-to-year increase in attendance per game this season at +11,698 (up from 27,507 per game through 25 home games in 2022) … The Toronto Blue Jays rank 2nd behind the Phillies among all clubs in year-to-year attendance growth at +6,417 and the Pittsburgh Pirates rank 2nd among NL teams at +5,158 … The Phils have welcomed 980,128 fans to CBP so far this year – through 25 games last season, the Phillies had 687,681 in attendance (+292,447 in 2023).
BULLISH ON THE PEN: Since April 16, the Phillies bullpen has the lowest ERA in MLB at 2.79 (50 ER, 161.1 IP) … Philadelphia’s bullpen has faced 680 batters during this stretch and limited them to a .225/.297/.339 slash line with a .636 OPS that ranks 2nd in MLB behind only SD (.594) … Per Statcast, since April 16, the Phillies bullpen is running the lowest hard-hit rate of any bullpen in MLB (31.4%) with the lowest average exit velocity on balls in play (86.9 MPH) … This season, the Phils are 20-3 when leading after 6 (.870 win %), 22-3 when leading after 7 (.880 win %) and 25-1 (.962 win %) when leading after 8.
TONIGHT’S STARTER – TAIJUAN WALKER • RHP #99
2023: 4-3, 5.65 ERA Career: 58-53, 3.99 ERA
LAST START: 6/1 at NYM: L, 4.0 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 3 BB, 2 SO …
Walker vs Scherzer … The Phillies fell to the New York Mets, 4-2, and were swept in a three-game series at Citi Field … Philadelphia jumped in front early with 2 runs in the 1st but failed to score again … The Phillies’ six hits were all singles, 3 of which came off the bat of Nick Castellanos.
TONIGHT’S START:
- Doing the Splits: Walker has used his splitter 34.8% of the time in 2023, the highest rate of his career (previous: 27.6% in 2022) … He has thrown it more often than any other pitch (341 times, next: sinker, 224 times) and has surrendered just 3 XBH (2B, 3B, HR) on it. Walker threw his splitter for 46 of 85 pitches on 5/7 and 46 of 105 pitches on 4/9, the most he has ever thrown the pitch in a game in his career (previous: 43 times, 6/2/22 & 8/8/16). 20 of his 45 strikeouts have come via the splitter and his 20.7 strikeout percentage and 24.3 whiff percentage with the pitch are the 5th-best and 7th-best marks in the NL (min. 25 PA), respectively.
- Limiting Lefties: This season, Walker has held lefties to a .232 (23-99) AVG, compared to a .288 AVG (34-118) against righties … Since his debut year, 2013, Walker has limited left-handed batters to a .232 AVG (395-1702), 13th-best among active righthanded arms during that span (min. 1,500 LHB faced).
- Pick ‘em Off: Walker’s 20 successful pickoff attempts since the start of the 2015 season are tied for the 5th-most among active major league pitchers in that span and tied for 2nd-most among active righties. Is one of 7 right-handed hurlers with multiple successful pickoffs this season.
- From the Ground Up: Walker’s 50.6% ground ball rate is the 8th-highest among all NL pitchers (min. 40.0 IP).
- vs AL Central: 10-4, 3.38 ERA (40 ER, 106.2 IP) in 18 games.
HOME:
- 2023: 1-0, 3.60 ERA (8 ER, 20.0 IP) in 4 starts.
- Career: 25-21, 3.80 ERA (195 ER, 461.1 IP) in 84 games (82
starts). - CBP: 2-1, 4.50 ERA (22 ER, 44.0 IP) in 9 starts.
2023 SEASON:
- On 5/21 vs CHI, Walker made his 1st career start on 3 days rest and notched his 1st scoreless appearance of at least 5.0 innings since 7/10/22 vs MIA (7.0 IP)
- Made his Phillies debut on 4/3 at NYY after signing a 4-year contract with the club in December.
- Pitched for Team Mexico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, making 1 start in Pool Play against Great Britain … He threw 4.0 scoreless IP with 2 baserunners allowed and recorded 8 of his 12 outs via strikeout.
