The Detroit Tigers changed plans before first pitch Monday night in Houston. Troy Melton was scratched from the opener against the Houston Astros, and Drew Anderson will open the game instead at Daikin Park.
The matchup, listed as Game 73, was scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET and sends the Tigers into a road series opener they need after a two-game losing streak. Kai-Wei Teng was listed to start for the Astros, who reached Houston after a series win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman.
For Melton, the late switch comes in the middle of a season in which he had been working as a useful arm on outcomes if not always on the underlying numbers. The 25-year-old entered the matchup 3-0 with a 2.81 ERA, but his 5.36 FIP and 13.7% strikeout rate both pointed in a less steady direction, leaving the Tigers with little margin if they wanted to keep his workload controlled.
That is what makes the move easy to read and hard to fully explain. Melton was the listed starter, yet Anderson is the one who will take the ball first, which means the Tigers are shifting the first innings to a reliever-style plan without changing the night’s opponent. It also comes after their road series at Progressive Field was cut short Sunday because of bad weather, a stop-start stretch that has already pushed Detroit into this series looking for a cleaner beginning.
The Tigers now go into Houston with the opener rearranged and the assignment for the first outs handed to Anderson instead of the pitcher who had been lined up for it. The next thing that matters is whether that change helps Detroit get through the first part of the game in one piece, because the rest of the night begins at 8:10 p.m. ET against Teng and the Astros.
