Matt Manning cruises on the mound, but Detroit Tigers' split-squad loses to Orioles, 5-2

SARASOTA, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2, on Tuesday at Ed Smith Stadium.

The Tigers managed just four hits and played some sloppy defense with their split-squad team.

What happened

The Tigers’ bus got stuck in traffic traveling from Lakeland to Sarasota, arriving about a half hour later than they planned on Tuesday morning.

By the time the Tigers showed up, Baltimore was already done warming up.

But it didn’t seem to impact Matt Manning, who got his first start of the spring. Manning worked two scoreless innings, allowing no hits while striking out two with one walk.

“I felt good,” Manning said. “It's just on to the next one. It's good to be out there. Last time I pitched competitively was when I broke my foot, so seems like yesterday. But it's always good to get the first one out of the way, get my work in and then just keep progressing and keep up all my stuff. I think I'm in a good spot.”

But this game was lost in the fifth inning with Devin Sweet on the mound for the Tigers.

And there was nothing sweet about it.

The Orioles tied the game, 2-2, when a ground ball got past first baseman Keston Hiura and was fielded by second baseman Zach McKinstry, who flipped it to Sweet. But Sweet couldn’t handle the ball and was charged with the error. It should have been the end of the inning, but it only opened the floodgates.

Former Tigers catcher James McCann and Coby Mayo hit back-to-back two-out doubles for Baltimore, driving in three runs between them, as the Orioles took a 5-2 lead.

"We had the one miscue in PFP (pitcher fielding practice) led to three runs," said George Lombard, the acting manager.

With manager A.J. Hinch working in Lakeland, Lombard took over as the acting manager of this split-squad game.

"Like A.J. mentions all the time, we've got to protect the ball," Lombard said. "We're going to handle the ball. But that was it. The pitching was good. Unfortunately, it led to three runs and we just couldn't bounce back from it."

Starting off

Lombard’s expertise is coaching outfielders – or "teaching" as he said – and fittingly enough, the Tigers outfielders were outstanding.

Bligh Madris made the catch of the day, diving for a sinking line drive off the bat of Jorge Mateo, with a guy on second base to end the fourth inning.

And center fielder Parker Meadows showed off his speed, jump and athleticism in the top of the fifth when he ran into the gap and caught a long fly ball hit by Tyler Nevin, the former Tiger. Meadows, of course, made it look smooth and easy.

"He makes it look so easy – his strides are so long," Lombard said. "He's gonna play a huge part of this team."

Then, Meadows showed off his speed again in the top of the sixth inning. He hit a simple ground ball to right, flicked on the jets, and turned it into a double.

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At the plate

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead when McKinstry hit an opposite-field home run in the first inning on an 0-2 pitch.

Nope, that bus delay didn’t impact him at all.

Hiura had the hit of the day, when he tripled to right field, driving in Madris, who had singled, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

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On the mound

Manning was impressive. He cruised through the first inning, getting a strikeout, a groundout to short and a groundout back to himself on the mound.

The Orioles got their first base runner after a 7-pitch battle between Manning and catcher James McCann, who popped the ball up but it was misjudged in the wind by McKinstry at second base, who dropped it for the error. After a walk, Baltimore had two guys on but Manning got out of trouble by getting Nevin to hit a harmless fly ball to center.

"It was good to see Manning out there, looked comfortable and dealt with a little adversity and just battled," Lombard said.

Sweet gave up four hits and four runs in one inning of work. But he could blame only himself. All four runs were unearned because of an error – his fielding error.

Ty Madden, the Tigers' No. 2 ranked pitching prospect behind Jackson Jobe, according to MLB Pipeline, made his Grapefruit League debut in the bottom of the sixth inning. He gave up a double to Daniel Johnson, who has 35 games of MLB experience.

After giving up a walk, he got out of the jam with a pop-up by Kyle Stowers, who has 48 games of MLB experience.

Madden got into trouble again in the bottom of the seventh after Baltimore put two on after a walk and a single with no outs. He started to work out of it but was pulled with two on and two outs.

"It felt good," Madden said. "Just got behind a couple hitters, but other than that, I thought stuff was good and executions gotta get there. It's early."

Lael Lockhart came on and got him out of the jam with a harmless flyball to center.

Three stars

1. Manning, 2. Meadows, 3. McKinstry.

Next up

Wednesday (1:05 p.m.) vs. Pirates in Bradenton, Florida.

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Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.

To read Seidel's recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Matt Manning impresses, but split Tigers squad loses to Orioles, 5-2