The Detroit Tigers opened a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Comerica Park, with Troy Melton set to take the ball for the first game. Detroit entered Game 67 having won five of its six games this month, but it still shared the division cellar with the Kansas City Royals and trailed Minnesota by 2.5 games.
The matchup started at 6:40 p.m. ET as the Tigers opened the second half of a six-game homestand and looked to make up ground in the AL Central. The Cleveland Guardians led the division, with the Chicago White Sox not far behind, which left little room for Detroit to keep drifting in the standings if it wanted the series to matter beyond one night.
Melton brought momentum into the start after throwing eight innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out five. That outing gave him his second win of the 2026 campaign and left him at 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA going into a matchup with a Twins lineup he had seen only once before in the majors.
That prior meeting came on Aug. 5 last year at Comerica Park, when Melton worked two hitless, scoreless innings in relief, walked two and struck out one in a 6-3 Tigers loss. Tuesday’s start was a different assignment, and Detroit needed him to turn that short look into something more useful against a division opponent sitting ahead of it in the standings.
Minnesota countered with Taj Bradley, who entered at 5-2 with a 3.56 ERA after missing time in May with right pectoral inflammation. Since returning to the rotation, Bradley had made three starts and put up a 5.93 ERA and 3.40 FIP over 13 2/3 innings, allowing 15 hits and nine walks while striking out 18. He had also faced Detroit on April 7 at Comerica Park, when he gave up one run on six hits, did not issue a walk and struck out 10 over 6 1/3 innings in a 4-2 Tigers loss, even while hitting two batters.
The series opener gave the Tigers a chance to do more than keep pace. With two games left in the set, the next result would either deepen Minnesota’s hold on the head-to-head edge or give Detroit a path back into the chase that has been slow to open up, even during a stretch of better baseball.
