2014 TIGERS' SPRING TRAINING Grapefruit League Schedule

Verlander rides scoreless effort over Braves
Tigers ace delivers five clean frames as Carrera sparks offense in win

By Mark Bowman / MLB.com | 3/21/2014 4:10 P.M. ET

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- With the start of the regular season a little more than a week away, Julio Teheran and Justin Verlander indicated they are ready to make their respective Opening Day starts.

Verlander delivered five scoreless innings and Ezequiel Carrera highlighted a two-run fourth inning with a double that propelled the Tigers to a 3-0 win over the Braves on Friday afternoon at Champion Stadium.

Teheran surrendered just two hits and was perfect in four of his six innings. But the right-hander paid for the mistake he made in the fourth, which began with Ian Kinsler drawing a walk. Carrera followed with a double to right field and then advanced to third base on an errant fastball that nearly hit Miguel Cabrera in the head before traveling to the backstop.

After gaining a bigger cushion when Carrera scored on a Victor Martinez groundout, Verlander completed his strong five-inning effort, during which he scattered five hits and notched four strikeouts. The ace pitched around Jason Heyward's leadoff single in the first and escaped threats in the second and fifth innings.

Philip Gosselin doubled with one out in the second inning and then advanced to third base when Tyler Greene followed with a single. Greene got picked off when he raced toward second base after Verlander made a pickoff throw to third.

The first of Ramiro Pena's two doubles and a Teheran single helped the Braves load the bases with two outs in the fifth inning. But that threat ended with B.J. Upton grounding out to Kinsler at second.

Up next: The Tigers will travel to Dunedin, Fla., on Saturday to take on the Blue Jays at 1:05 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV. Southpaws Kyle Lobstein and Blaine Hardy are scheduled to pitch, along with righty Luke Putkonen. Regulars in the starting lineup include Martinez -- who will catch and lead off -- and Cabrera.

Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Miggy, Carrera fuel four-run frame in loss to Jays

By Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com | 3/22/2014 4:20 P.M. ET

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DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion and designated hitter Moises Sierra each homered while Todd Redmond carried a perfect game into the fifth inning en route to a 9-4 victory over the Tigers on Saturday at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

The vast majority of Toronto's offense came during the first inning with left-hander Kyle Lobstein on the mound for Detroit. Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera got the rally started with a pair of back-to-back doubles to account for the first run of the game.

Jose Bautista then walked and Encarnacion proceeded to hit his third home run of the spring with a no-doubter to left field. Two batters later, Sierra followed with his second home run in as many games on a high fly ball to center. That gave the Blue Jays an early five-run lead just six batters into the game.

Lobstein managed to settle down and get through the rest of the inning without any further damage. He stayed in the game until the end of the third and was charged with the five runs on eight hits and one walk while striking out four. His ERA for the spring now sits at 7.11 in five appearances.

"He was just getting behind, I think," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "Command's a big part of his game. When he gets behind, it tends to be a little more painful."

Redmond, who is competing for the final spot in Toronto's rotation, had a flawless start to his outing. He was perfect until walking Tyler Collins with one out in the fifth inning. Redmond gave up a single two batters later, but got through the inning without allowing any runs.

Detroit changed that in the sixth when Ezequiel Carrera led off the inning with a homer to right field. Victor Martinez then doubled and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Miguel Cabrera, while Tyler Collins also added a two-run double. Redmond was charged with three of the four runs on five hits and one walk while striking out eight over his six innings.

Up next: Miguel Cabrera will return to third base for the first time this spring on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. ET as the Tigers welcome the Marlins to Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla. Watch it live on MLB.TV. Cabrera is slated to start at third base to get in some work in preparation for Detroit's early Interleague Play series. Left-hander Drew Smyly is scheduled to start, and the Tigers will send out a few of their primary late-inning relievers: closer Joe Nathan and right-handers Joba Chamberlain and Al Albuquerque. Miami is slated to start right-hander Jacob Turner.

Gregor Chisholm is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, North of the Border, and follow him on Twitter @gregorMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Worth crushes three-run shot, but Tigers fall
Smyly allows three runs, all coming via homers, over five innings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 3/23/2014 4:40 P.M. ET

BOX SCORE

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Giancarlo Stanton's fifth home run of the spring cleared the berm in left-center field at Joker Marchant Stadium, one of two Marlins blasts off Tigers starter Drew Smyly, leading Miami to an 8-4 win over Detroit on Sunday.

The Tigers made a late run, tying the game at 4 thanks to Danny Worth's three-run homer off Henry Rodriguez in the eighth. However, the Marlins plated four runs off Joe Nathan in the ninth. Brian Bogusevic knocked an RBI double and Jeff Mathis drilled a two-run double.

Mathis' first homer this spring accounted for the other run off Smyly, who paid for the homers, but could've fared worse after giving up eight hits over five innings. Reed Johnson's fifth-inning double to left was the only other extra-base hit he gave up, but Stanton converted it with one of the deepest drives in the current configuration of the ballpark.

"Sometimes I don't watch it," Smyly said of the Stanton homer, "but that one I was like, 'Let's see how far this one's going.' I looked up and I thought it was going to go over the light pole. It puts a damper on my day for the last inning, but at the same time, I thought I battled pretty well."

The drive sailed just to the left of the center field batter's eye, landing on the other side of the berm that separates the stadium from the Al Kaline practice field.

The homers provided an early lead for Marlins starter Jacob Turner, who lost out to Smyly in the bid for Detroit's fifth starter's spot in 2012 before he was traded to Miami later that year. Turner retired the first 11 batters he faced until Miguel Cabrera walked. Detroit's first hit didn't arrive until Austin Jackson sent a ground ball through the left side for a leadoff single in the fifth.

Jackson's steal of second base and Alex Avila's bloop single set up a run when Casey McGehee couldn't handle Bryan Holaday's grounder to third. Turner regrouped to retire new Tigers shortstop Andrew Romine on a double play to end the threat.

Turner stuck out five Tigers over six innings of three-hit ball, continuing his solid spring.

Up next: While Anibal Sanchez returns to game action Monday by pitching in a Minor League game at Tigertown, Rick Porcello follows the Major League team and the national television cameras to Bradenton for a 1:05 p.m. ET contest against the Pirates at McKechnie Field. Rajai Davis is scheduled to return to action after missing close to a week with tightness in his right hamstring, while Austin Jackson also makes the trip. The game is the first of back-to-back Tigers Spring Training contests on ESPN this week. Fans can also tune in live to the contest on MLB.TV.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello allows six runs in final spring start
Right-hander strikes out five; newly acquired Gonzalez goes 1-for-2 with RBI

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 3/25/2014 4:19 P.M. ET

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LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jason Heyward, author of several tape-measure home runs at Joker Marchant Stadium, hit what might have been his longest on Tuesday. His sixth-inning drive off Rick Porcello cleared the scoreboard in right field and carried towards the moving truck behind it, helping power the Braves to a 12-3 win over the Tigers.

Heyward's fourth home of the spring was his second in Lakeland, and the second no-doubt drive by a Tigers opponent this week. Four weeks after Heyward hit the batting-practice cages beyond right field, and two days after Giancarlo Stanton cleared the berm in the depths of left-center, Heyward arguably topped both.

Tigers right fielder Torii Hunter, who deked fans and raised his glove like he had a chance on Gerald Laird's two-run homer three batters earlier, simply looked to the ground and picked at the outfield grass as Heyward's drive soared. Both home runs came off Porcello, who gave up three runs each in the first and sixth innings of his final spring tuneup.

Porcello allowed six runs on 10 hits over six innings. For the spring, he allowed 16 earned runs on 27 hits over 18 1/3 innings, a reversal from the solid spring he enjoyed last year to beat out Drew Smyly for a rotation spot.

"I feel really good," Porcello said. "Obviously, the results haven't been there this spring. I don't look into it any more than how I feel and how I'm executing pitches. I feel good, and the ability to execute pitches is there. I just need to bear down a little bit more."

Laird, Porcello's catcher during two different stints in Detroit, drove in two of those six runs, his first RBIs in an injury-shortened spring. Heyward scored twice, while Dan Uggla and Justin Upton had two hits each. Ramiro Pena hit a two-run triple in the seventh off Ian Krol to put Atlanta into double digits.

Braves starter Ervin Santana, who tossed 14 shutout innings against the Tigers last season as a Royal, gave up a run in each of the first two innings but still limited the damage. Hunter singled and scored on a Victor Martinez groundout in the first, then Alex Avila singled and scored on Alex Gonzalez's groundout an inning later.

Gonzalez, taking over at shortstop following his trade from the Orioles, went 1-for-3 with a walk in his first game as a Tiger. Nick Castellanos hit a pair of doubles, raising his average to .389 on the spring, while Avila and Miguel Cabrera had two-hit games.

Up next: Justin Verlander will make his final tuneup before his Opening Day assignment Wednesday when he faces the Phillies in a 1:05 p.m. ET game in Clearwater, Fla., that can be seen live on MLB.TV. Verlander has a chance at a shutout spring, having thrown 13 2/3 innings without a run in Grapefruit League play. Most of the Tigers' starting lineup is scheduled to make the trip.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander dominates in final spring outing
Right-hander allows just one hit over 6 1/3 shutout frames

By Austin Laymance / MLB.com | 3/26/2014 4:49 P.M. ET

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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Opening Day starters Justin Verlander and Cliff Lee engaged in a pitching duel on Wednesday afternoon, and the visiting Tigers edged the Phillies, 1-0, in a Grapefruit League game at Bright House Field.

Verlander put the finishing touches on a stellar spring in which he did not allow a run over 20 innings. He surrendered just one hit over 6 1/3 innings against the Phillies, striking out seven and issuing one walk. Verlander retired 16 consecutive batters before walking Reid Brignac to lead off the seventh.

"I was efficient and that comes back to my fastball control," Verlander said. "I was able to locate real well and get ahead of a lot of guys. It was a good day."

Verlander said five of the seven strikeouts came on pitches other than the fastball.

"I'm definitely encouraged," he said. "Obviously, there hasn't been a lot of solid contact, so I know that what I'm working on has been beneficial to me. I think I've got a good angle on my fastball and my off-speed stuff's been really good."

Lee also looked sharp in his final start of the spring, scattering six hits over five innings of one-run ball. The left-hander struck out seven against one walk. The Tigers had at least one baserunner in each inning against Lee, but the lefty was able to pitch out of jams and induced two double plays. Lee finished the spring with a 2.55 ERA over six starts.

The Tigers scored the game's only run in the first inning. Ian Kinsler belted a one-out triple to right and scored on Miguel Cabrera's grounder to shortstop.

After struggling to score runs early in the spring, the Phillies entered Wednesday hitting .295 over their last eight games. But their bats were silenced by Verlander, a former American League Cy Young Award winner. Chase Utley had the Phillies' only hit against the flamethrower, a single in the first inning.

Up next: Max Scherzer will make his final Spring Training tuneup before his Cy Young defense on Thursday, when he faces the Braves in a 1:05 p.m. ET matchup at Joker Marchant Stadium. Scherzer, who made headlines earlier this week when the Tigers announced they've tabled talks on a contract extension, has pitched well through the potential distraction, though he has allowed eight runs on 12 hits over 10 1/3 innings in his last two outings. MLB.TV will have the game live online, while FS Detroit will carry the game back to Michigan.

Austin Laymance is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jalaymance. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Miggy's moonshot backs strong Scherzer
Slugger hits fourth homer of spring; righty fans six in 6 2/3 solid innings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 3/27/2014 3:55 P.M. ET

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LAKELAND, Fla. -- Miguel Cabrera's three-run home run spoiled Aaron Harang's first appearance in a Braves uniform, sending Max Scherzer and the Tigers to a middle-inning comeback with a 9-3 win Thursday afternoon at Joker Marchant Stadium.

The game closes the Braves' Grapefruit League schedule with a 12-18-3 record. Detroit heads into its Spring Training finale Friday against the Rays with a 14-12-2 mark.

Three days after signing a one-year contract to shore up the injury-shortened Braves pitching staff, Harang took the mound for Atlanta and more than held his own. He had a lead thanks to Jordan Schafer, who scored on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly in the third inning before slugging a solo homer in the fifth.

Once B.J. Upton jumped a first-pitch Scherzer changeup and sent it to the top of the left-field berm for his first home run of the spring, the Braves had a 3-1 lead for Harang going into the bottom of the fifth. One swing from Cabrera erased it.

In a regular-season game, Cabrera probably wouldn't have had the chance to swing at all. Harang had runners at second and third with nobody out after a Bryan Holaday single and an Alex Gonzalez walk, but he had kept them there by retiring Rajai Davis and Ian Kinsler. With first base open, Harang could have walked Cabrera and opted to face Victor Martinez.

In Spring Training, however, Harang pitched to Cabrera, who turned on a 1-1 pitch and sent it over the berm for his fourth home run of the spring and a 4-3 Detroit lead. Schafer's misplay an inning later on Holaday's single to center sent Austin Jackson around from first base for another run before Gonzalez doubled in Holaday for a 6-3 lead.

Tyler Collins put the game out of reach with a seventh-inning RBI triple.

Harang gave up six runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out two. Scherzer, who has a history of late-spring struggles on his way to regular-season readiness, submitted a solid start by allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits over 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts.

Curt Powell padded the lead with a two-run single off Braves closer Craig Kimbrel in the eighth.

Up next: The Tigers wrap up their Grapefruit League schedule Friday with close to a regular lineup for their 1:05 p.m. ET game against the Rays at Joker Marchant Stadium in a game that can be heard live on Gameday Audio. Drew VerHagen, the pitching prospect who has a chance to serve as an insurance starter while working at Triple-A Toledo, is scheduled to make the start.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Bats waste no time in Tigers' Grapefruit finale
Miggy, Kinsler help open early scoring against Rays left-hander Moore

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 3/28/2014 4:01 P.M. ET

BOX SCORE

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Alex Avila saved his first home run of the spring for the last game of the Grapefruit League season while Ian Kinsler scored twice against Rays lefty Matt Moore, sending the Tigers north with a 6-3 win Friday at Joker Marchant Stadium.

Tampa Bay finished with baseball's best record this spring at 16-7-4. Detroit closed its slate with a 15-12-2 mark.

Just over an hour after a news conference to announce his eight-year contract extension, Miguel Cabrera singled as part of three consecutive Tigers hits to open the game. Rajai Davis hit a leadoff single, took second base on a wild pitch and scored on a Kinsler single.

Moore regrouped after Cabrera's liner into shallow center to strike out Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter, but he gave up a second run when Austin Jackson's ground ball through the left side sent Kinsler home from second. That was the theme of the day for Moore, who alternated nasty pitches with damage control on his way to three runs on seven hits over three innings.

It was nevertheless encouraging for Moore, who didn't walk a batter after issuing 10 free passes over his previous two starts.

"For me, personally, it's a little bit easier to walk away from a game like this, where I was in a zone," Moore said. "They beat me. I didn't put them on. Try to work around some of those base hits, and we'll be ready for the season."

Kinsler's second run off Moore began with a leadoff single before two wild pitches put him in position to score on a Martinez liner into left. Moore escaped further damage when Brandon Guyer stretched for a diving catch in left-center field, robbing Nick Castellanos of an RBI double.

Avila's home run came off Joel Peralta. It was just his fourth extra-base hit in a Spring Training that saw him bat .306 (15-for-49) with four RBIs. Dominic Ficociello added an RBI single in the seventh.

Up next: The Tigers take a side trip on their trek north for an exhibition game Saturday in Washington, where they'll take on the Nationals in a 2:05 p.m. ET game that will be free on MLB.TV. The contest won't count in any standings, not even the Grapefruit League, but it'll be a big game for Anibal Sanchez, who makes his final tuneup before his regular-season debut next Thursday. Most of the projected Tigers starting lineup will play.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.