Seattle — It wasn’t exactly a coin-flip decision, but in choosing his starter for Game 3 of the ALDS, Tigers manager AJ Hinch didn’t feel there was wrong answer.
Both Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty threw their bullpens before Game 2 Sunday, but it will be Flaherty starting in Game 3 and Mize in Game 4, the opposite of how Hinch deployed them against the Guardians in the wild-card series.
“Every series is a little different,” Hinch said. “We did flip them last time and we're doing it again. Both are working off relatively controllable pitch counts, so that wasn't really a factor.”
Mize started Game 2 in Cleveland, at least partly because he didn’t face the Guardians at the end of the regular season and Flaherty had. Mize threw 62 pitches in three-plus innings in the wild-card series, Flahe