Maeda undone by late-count struggles against former club

MINNEAPOLIS -- Kenta Maeda could only shake his head Thursday as Ryan Jeffers sent his 88th and final pitch down the left-field line for a two-run home run.

Maeda’s frustration was understandable; after several prolonged at-bats, he had put an 0-2 splitter just below the strike zone. But it was over the plate, and Jeffers -- Maeda’s catcher for 19 of his 53 games with the Twins from 2021 to 2023 -- crushed it.

“He could’ve been sitting on it,” Maeda said through translator Dai Sekizaki after the Tigers’ 12-3 loss at Target Field.

Unfortunately, Maeda’s frustration had been building for a couple innings along with the Twins’ offense, from four groundball singles in a three-run third inning to erase Detroit’s early 3-0 lead to back-to-back two-out walks setting up his demise in the fourth. Maeda looked out towards center field, his back to the plate, as manager A.J. Hinch patted him on the back and took the ball following Jeffers’ homer.

“That has to do with how I pitched, especially with an early lead that our team gave me,” Maeda said. “I just feel bad for the team. I feel like I let the team down. I think that was the [reason for] the body language.”

The feeling in the offices of Comerica Park could be similar. The Tigers signed Maeda last November to a two-year, $24 million contract to provide a veteran presence in a young rotation. But they also saw an upside play, believing Maeda’s second-half velocity boost was a sign of better fortunes in his second year back from Tommy John surgery.

Maeda’s April struggles followed his career trend of slow starts, and Detroit hoped that his history of stronger summers would follow suit, a sentiment furthered by a couple solid starts heading into May. But it’s July 4, and Maeda hasn’t had a quality start since May 1, though he came within two outs of such an outing last Friday against the Angels.

Maeda’s nine runs allowed Thursday were one off his career high set here last year for the Twins. Thursday’s damage raised his ERA to 6.71, which would be highest among AL starters by three-quarters of a run if he had enough innings to qualify. Opponents are batting .294 and slugging .520 against him. His metrics aren’t much friendlier, placing him in the bottom 20 percent among MLB pitchers in expected ERA and batting average, strikeout rate, barrel rate and groundball rate. Ironically, his hard-hit rate is better than average.

While Maeda has made progress attacking the strike zone, Thursday showed his struggles in finishing off hitters. Jeffers’ homer followed Maeda’s eighth 0-2 count, and became the third hit out of such a hole. Maeda finished off two of those batters with strikeouts, including Jeffers on a 1-2 pitch an inning before his homer. But Maeda, despite 11 swinging strikes and 14 called strikes, struggled to finish off batters. Opponents are 12-for-47 with three home runs and two walks off Maeda following 0-2 counts.

“I have to put away guys, especially with two strikes,” Maeda said. “Those pitches with two strikes must be better. My strikeout rate has gone down this year. Hopefully if I can get those pitches back, that’ll go up.”

To Hinch, it’s a symptom of location. Some of his two-strike pitches are so far outside the zone that hitters can easily lay off of them, making them non-competitive pitches. Others get enough of the zone that hitters can do damage off them, even in two-strike swings.

“It’s middle [of the zone] and miss [location] that hurts him time after time,” Hinch said, “and those big innings come back to haunt you.”

Maeda’s contract, including $10 million for next season, gives the Tigers ample motivation to keep working with Maeda and giving him chances and giving the club’s highly-regarded pitching instructors more opportunity. So does the Tigers’ rotation situation, with Casey Mize on the injured list, Jack Flaherty getting more treatment on his back and Matt Manning working on tweaks at Triple-A Toledo. Maeda has been a reliever at times in his career, but there’s no talk of such a move yet.

“The intensity of his bullpens have gotten better,” Hinch said. “We’ve got to find the command again. At the end of the day with Kenta, it begins and ends with command. If he can throw the ball where he wants to, then he can get early-count swings, or he can go to his split in and out of the zone, or his sweeper.”