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SPORTS

Tigers pitchers shine in romp over Florida Southern

Chris McCosky
The Detroit News
Tigers non-roster pitcher Myles Jaye works in the first inning.

Lakeland, Fla. – The Detroit Tigers’ annual spring dress rehearsal against Florida Southern went off without a hitch – well, mostly.

The fire alarm went off as Tigers’ starter Myles Jaye was throwing his warm-up pitches and continued through the first at-bat of the game.

“I thought it was a rally siren,” manager Brad Ausmus joked.

Other than that, the new-look Joker Marchant Stadium appears ready for its official unveiling Friday.

“Even before this game I thought it was one of the top stadiums of spring training, Florida and Arizona – maybe the top stadium,” Ausmus said.

The starters stuck around long enough to put together a three-run second inning and the Tigers went on to beat the Moccasins 8-0.

Nick Castellanos and Mikie Mahtook both doubled in the inning and James McCann poked a two-run single to right field.

Steven Moya had an RBI single in the third and was walked with the bases-loaded in the sixth. He also made a nice sliding catch in shallow right field.

“The more confident and comfortable he becomes in the outfield, the longer his career is going to go,” Ausmus said.

Triple-A catcher Miguel Gonzalez blasted a long, two-run home run onto the berm in left field.

But it was the Tigers’ pitchers who ruled the day.

Jaye, acquired last year from the Rangers for catcher Bryan Holaday, and right-hander Sandy Baez each pitched two scoreless, one-hit innings.

“Jaye’s crossfire delivery makes him sneaky a little bit,” Ausmus said. “I do like his slider when he throws it with a tight rotation. It’s very similar, spin-wise, to his fastball. But I want to see how big-league hitters react to it.”

Left-hander Jairo Labourt and right-handers Victor Alcantara, Adam Ravenelle, Ruben Alaniz and Joe Jimenez each pitched a scoreless inning.

“Overall, the guys threw well and they threw strikes, for the most part,” Ausmus said. “It was clean defensively. We had some good swings.”

Michael Fulmer will start for the Tigers Friday against the Orioles in the exhibition opener. He is expected to pitch only one inning.

Twitter @cmccosky