Tigers salvage series finale vs. Mets, but Kyle Finnegan appears injured

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Sep 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — It’s never nothing with these Tigers.

On a day when Casey Mize gave his most encouraging performance in a month, reliever Tommy Kahnle, entrusted again with leverage work, got some clutch outs and the Tigers salvaged the finale of a rough series against the Mets with a 6-2 win at Comerica Park, they will still go into the off day Thursday with some serious worry.

While warming up in the top of the seventh inning, late-inning reliever Kyle Finnegan felt tightness in his right groin. FanDuel Sports cameras showed him go into a crouch because of the pain and bullpen coach Juan Nieves told him to stop throwing.

Finnegan, who hasn’t allowed a run in 14 1/3 innings since being acquired by the Tigers, walked back through the dugout and down the tunnel to the clubhouse, presumably for tests and treatment.

Fortunately, Kerry Carpenter took some of the stress off the bullpen. He lined a three-run home run off reliever Ryan Helsley in the bottom of the seventh to turn a one-run lead into a fast four-run cushion.

It was Carpenter’s 23rd homer and first hit of the series.

But the bullpen had been stout to that point.

With the Tigers up 3-1 in the sixth, Kahnle inherited a runners at first and third and one out. He gave up an RBI single to Mark Vientos and walked Jeff McNeil to load the bases with one out.

But he quickly extricated the Tigers from the mess by getting Starling Marte to bang into a 5-4-3 double-play.

Kahnle got the first two outs in the seventh before walking Francisco Lindor.

Manager AJ Hinch called on Will Vest to face the ever-dangerous Juan Soto. After Lindor stole second to get into scoring position, Vest got him to rollover softly to Spencer Torkelson at first base.

Vest pitched a scoreless eighth and, without Finnegan, Rafael Montero, another trade deadline acquisition, got the ball in the ninth and secured the final three outs.

This wasn’t an audition for Mize, mind you. His place in the Tigers’ rotation has not been questioned through 23 starts this season.

That said, after a rough eight-start stretch (7.20 ERA), it seemed vitally important, for the team and his own potential postseason role, for him to take a positive step Wednesday.

He took several.

With more life and command on his fastball than he’s shown maybe since before the All-Star break, Mize allowed a run in five solid innings of work against a Mets offense that has been battering Tigers’ pitching in this series.

It started with the command. Mize threw 17 first-pitch strikes to the 19 batters he faced. He established both his four-seam fastball and sinker early. After the first two innings, the velocity range on his four-seam was 95 to 97 mph, 96 to 98 with the sinker.

Also, the spin rates on both were significantly higher — 215 rpms over norm with the sinker and 146 rpms over norm with the four-seam.

In the second inning, he called third strikes on both Marte (98 mph sinker) and Brett Baty (97 mph four-seamer). He held the velocity for five innings and the rpms stayed well above norm (197 rmps on the sinker, 123 on the four-seamer).

He did give up some loud contact (88.6 mph average exit velocity on 16 balls in play) and didn’t get a lot of swing-and-miss (six whiffs on 37 swings) or punch outs (three), but he was in control of most of the at-bats and only once worked with a runner in scoring position.

That happened in the third inning when Lindor and Pete Alonso both doubled.

Mize had thrown only 69 pitches after he finished the fifth, but Hinch went to lefty Tyler Holton with two lefties and Alonso coming up for the third time in the game.

The Tigers put Mize in position to get the win, scoring two runs and chasing Mets starter Clay Holmes in the bottom of the fifth.

Holmes walked Colt Keith and Carpenter with one out. Former Tiger Gregory Soto was summoned to face lefty-swinging Riley Greene. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position.

And, after getting two quick strikes, Greene fought back in the at-bat and ripped a two-run single.

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