TAMPA, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost to the New York Yankees, 6-3, on Tuesday at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The Tigers are 12-14 in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
For the first time in eight days, right-handed reliever Will Vest appeared in a spring training game. He recorded two outs in the sixth inning as the Yankees scored five runs off him.
The 27-year-old, who pitched in 59 games for the Tigers last season, wasn’t injured during the week without an outing in big-league camp. Rather, he was trying to fix the mechanics of his delivery on the backfields in Lakeland.
Vest has allowed 13 runs across four innings in five games.
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The Tigers scored two runs in the first inning against right-hander Luis Severino and were blanked until scoring their third run in the ninth inning on Gage Workman’s RBI double.
Severino gave up two runs on four hits and one walk with nine strikeouts.
Starting off
Right-hander Spencer Turnbull, in his fourth start this spring after missing 1½ seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery, didn’t concede a hit until Josh Donaldson hammered a poorly executed sinker for a 411-foot solo home run to left-center in the fourth inning.
Otherwise, Turnbull was almost perfect in preparation for the season. He allowed one run on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts in 4⅔ innings, throwing 46 of 67 pitches for strikes.
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Turnbull walked Anthony Volpe in the second inning.
He threw 26 sliders, 16 four-seam fastballs, 15 sinkers, five changeups and five curveballs. The slider-heavy arsenal, surprisingly, didn’t generate an overwhelming number of swings and misses, but he managed to locate his fastball and secondary pitches inside the strike zone.
Turnbull got five whiffs — two sliders, two fastballs and one sinker — and 12 called strikes.
His fastball sat around 93.5 mph.
At the plate
Kerry Carpenter is competing with Akil Baddoo to be the fourth outfielder on the Opening Day roster. He crushed the third pitch of the game, a changeup from Severino, sending it over the right-center fence with a 104.5 mph exit velocity for a solo homer.
It was Carpenter’s third homer in spring training. All three homers occurred against the Yankees, including two against Severino.
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Jonathan Schoop, batting second, hit a single to right field and stole second on Riley Greene’s strikeout. Schoop scored on a two-out double from Austin Meadows in the first inning, putting the Tigers ahead 2-0.
Ryan Kreidler struck out, though, to strand Meadows.
On the mound
After Turnbull’s two outs in the fifth, Vest entered and completed the inning by fielding a bunt grounder from Jose Trevino. The sixth inning, though, began with a leadoff single from Rafael Ortega.
Vest faced eight batters in the sixth. He generated two groundouts but was responsible for one hit-by-pitch, one balk, three singles, one double and one home run.
Gleyber Torres tied the game, 2-2, with an RBI single, then Donaldson’s second homer put the Yankees ahead 5-2. Vest advanced a runner to third base on a balk, and the runner scored on Willie Calhoun’s groundout to make it 6-2.
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Left-hander Tyler Alexander has not been consistent in spring training, but he could be on the right track as Opening Day approaches. He took over for Vest in the sixth inning, recorded the final out and struck out the side in the seventh inning.
Alexander, who tossed 22 pitches, struck out Ortega (swinging strike, 79.4 mph slider), Tyler Hardman (swinging strike, 83.6 mph changeup) and Alan Mejia (79.8 mph slider).
Right-hander Jose Cisnero failed to complete the eighth inning, throwing 13 of 24 pitches for strikes. He finished with one of each — hit, walk and strikeout — but didn’t allow any runs. Righty Yaya Chentouf, elevated from minor-league camp, struck out Matt Pita for the third out.
Three stars
1. Turnbull; 2. Alexander; 3. Carpenter.
Next up
Wednesday (1:05 pm) vs. Atlanta Braves in Lakeland (Bally Sports Detroit).
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers’ bullpen rocked in 6-3 loss to New York Yankees