Detroit Tigers right-hander Matt Manning has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo three times this season to make a start during a doubleheader.
Manning is coming back to Detroit on Monday, but this time he has the stage all to himself, as he is expected to draw the start in the opener of a three-game series with the visiting Miami Marlins.
Kenta Maeda was originally scheduled to start the game for the Tigers, but he was placed on the 15-day injured list on Saturday due to a viral illness.
Now in his fourth major league season, Manning (0-1, 4.24 ERA) will be making his 49th career start for Detroit. He is 11-15 with a 4.36 ERA and will be facing the Marlins for the first time.
Manning could be with the big-league club for a little while. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Sunday that Maeda will require a rehab assignment before he returns.
“He feels miserable,” Hinch said of Maeda. “We need to get him back moving around. … We have to let this virus get through him to where he can get a full workout before we talk about getting him back on the mound.”
Manning’s most recent major league start came on April 30, when he gave up four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings against St. Louis. In his last Triple-A outing for Toledo on May 5, Manning gave up two runs in five innings.
Right-hander Sixto Sanchez (0-1, 7.50) will make his 11th appearance and fourth start of the season for the Marlins. Sanchez, who didn’t appear in a major league game for three seasons after multiple shoulder surgeries, hasn’t pitched since May 5, his third straight start.
In that outing, Sanchez gave up two runs and three hits in four innings against Oakland.
Sanchez has not faced the Tigers in his career. Hinch could stack his lineup with plenty of left-handed batters, as lefties are hitting .379 with a 1.022 on-base-plus-slugging percentage against Sanchez this season.
Miami doesn’t visit Detroit very often. This is the first time the Marlins have appeared there since 2019, when they swept a three-game series.
Miami snapped a five-game skid on Sunday by defeating Philadelphia 7-6 in 10 innings. Josh Bell blasted a three-run homer and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had a double and a triple.
“There were good at-bats up and down,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “We played small ball really well (Sunday). That’s kind of what we’re going to need to do to score runs. We’re not going to slug the other team to death.”
Pinch hitter Emmanuel Rivera had the game-winning hit, an RBI single with no outs in the 10th.
“You have to be ready from the first inning,” Rivera said. “So many things can happen in a game — an injury or come in late. You never know what the situation could be, so you have to be prepared.”
The Tigers lost two of three games to the visiting Houston Astros over the weekend, including a 9-3 defeat on Sunday. Former Detroit ace Justin Verlander tossed seven scoreless innings.
“He demonstrated all the arts of pitching,” Hinch said of Verlander. “We couldn’t generate any pressure on him the first half of the game because we couldn’t get any baserunners.”
–Field Level Media