Detroit Tigers right-hander Casey Mize, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft, had an impressive start to his major league debut before running into trouble and exiting in the fifth inning Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox.
Mize allowed three runs on seven hits while striking out seven and walking none in 4⅓ innings. The 23-year-old was replaced by Jose Cisnero after Yoan Moncada's RBI single tied the game at 3. The White Sox would go on to beat the visiting Tigers 5-3.
Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire said he liked what he saw from Mize.
"We saw a pretty good pitcher out there tonight," Gardenhire said. "We're really excited for him.
"He's a very professional kid. He made some pretty good hitters look bad over there."
Mize was opposed by touted White Sox right-hander Dane Dunning, who posted a nearly identical line to Mize in his own major league debut, yielding three runs on five hits and striking out seven while walking one through 4⅓.
Jeimer Candelario tagged Dunning for a towering three-run homer with one out in the fifth that put Detroit ahead 3-1 and ended the 25-year-old's first outing since he had Tommy John surgery in March 2019.
"For his first outing in the big leagues, a very, very good outing for him," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said.
But Renteria stopped short of saying Dunning had earned a spot in Chicago's injury-thinned rotation.
"Right now that's to be determined,'' Renteria said. "He's done enough to certainly impress all of us.''
Neither Mize nor Dunning had pitched above Double-A prior to this season.
Mize, ranked as the eighth-best prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline, and lefty Tarik Skubal were called up this week to fill a gap in the Tigers' rotation, also hit by injuries.
Candelario lined Dunning's first pitch of the game to the wall in right for a double, but the big righty set down the next 11 hitters, fanning six and striking out the side in the third.
Encarnacion hit a long solo shot off Mize in the second. Nomar Mazara followed with a line-shot double off the left-field wall. But Mize retired nine of the next 10 Chicago hitters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.