Max Clark didn’t wait long to put on a show, reaching base four times and excelling in his major league debut.
Clark will attempt to make Game No. 2 a hit as well when the Detroit Tigers battle the Athletics on Saturday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
The 21-year-old Clark, the Tigers’ No. 1 prospect, went 3-for-4 with a walk in his first big league outing as Detroit rolled to a 13-1 victory over the A’s on Friday night. The center fielder scored twice and drove in one with his parents, wife and other family members in the stands.
“It has been surreal. It’s a childhood dream come true,” the left-handed-hitting Clark said after a performance that included two doubles. “I’m blessed to say the least. … I felt very confident coming in (Friday), just backed by the guys and we got it done.”
Clark was rated as the No. 13 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline. The No. 3 overall pick in 2023, he arrives at a time in which Detroit’s season hangs in the balance.
The Tigers are six games below .500 and stand eighth in the American League wild-card battle in which only three teams will make the postseason.
The trade deadline is Monday and starting pitchers Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize are among the players who could be on the move.
Clark isn’t worried about that aspect. He‘s focused on making an impact.
“I’m going to do everything I can to play winning baseball,” Clark said. “The stats will come and go. Baseball has an ebb of ups and downs when it comes to the hitting side.”
Dillon Dingler belted his first career grand slam, Ben Malgeri hit his first career homer and Kevin McGonigle also went deep in Friday’s game.
Jonah Heim had an RBI double for the struggling Athletics, who have dropped six of seven games and 27 of 34.
All-Star slugger Nick Kurtz went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts and a walk and is 1-for-36 over the past 12 games.
But nobody is happy with a month that saw the Athletics go 5-19.
“We need to improve, right? That’s a fact,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “It’s never fun going through a month like this. We need to turn the page, start fresh in August, and start stacking as many wins together as we can.”
The Athletics will look to solve Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez (5-7, 4.53 ERA), who has a 1.38 WHIP and only 92 strikeouts in 21 starts. He fanned 187 batters in 31 outings for the Houston Astros last season.
Valdez, 32, defeated the Athletics on July 9 when he gave up one run and three hits over seven innings. He struck out a season-best nine and walked none.
However, he gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning while losing to the Chicago Cubs on July 21. He then received a no-decision against the Kansas City Royals five days later when he allowed three runs (two earned) and four hits over five innings.
Valdez is 9-4 with a 2.49 ERA in 18 appearances (16 starts) against the A’s. Heim (7-for-32) has hit two homers off Valdez and Kurtz (4-for-9) has taken him deep once.
Right-hander Jack Perkins (2-6, 6.45) takes the mound for the Athletics. He lost to the Boston Red Sox on Monday despite taking a no-hitter into the sixth — he gave up two runs and one hit over 5 2/3 innings.
Perkins struggled in July by going 0-3 with a 7.79 ERA in four appearances (three starts). One of the losses came in relief against the Tigers when he gave up three runs and two hits in three innings in the contest started by Valdez.
–Field Level Media
