Meadows played in just 36 games for the Tigers last season before missing the rest of the year with injuries and a mental health battle.

It’s a great sign for the Tigers that Meadows is picking up where he left off in 2022, especially against perhaps the toughest possible starting pitching matchup for a left-handed hitter. He took McClanahan to the opposite field corner for a double in his first at-bat, then added a pair of singles later in the game.

Ironically, it was the team’s left-handed hitters who stepped up against McClanahan, a lefty flamethrower with four legitimate swing-and-miss pitches.Īustin Meadows wasn’t fazed in his first official return to Tampa Bay since being traded to the Tigers. But there is some reason for optimism, and it was on display even in Thursday’s loss. Is this offense going to be bad? Definitely. Also, the Tigers got matched up with one of the nastiest pitchers in all of baseball: Shane McClanahan.

Yes, it’s discouraging to see such a flat offensive performance after waiting so long for baseball to return, but it’s not time to overreact.įirst of all, it’s one game out of 162 - everyone knows that.

The Tigers were shut down in their first game of 2023 after scoring zero runs for an American League record 22 games a season ago. DETROIT – Fans who watched the Detroit Tigers lineup put up zero after zero during Thursday’s opener against the Tampa Bay Rays might feel like they were watching last year’s team all over again, but that’s not necessarily our fate for another summer.

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