Troy Melton is set to make his eighth start for the Detroit Tigers on the same night the club tries to push the Athletics deeper into a four-game skid at Comerica Park. Detroit won the opener 6-2, and Melton brings a 4-1 record, a 2.05 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP into the matchup.
That is why his name is drawing attention now. The right-hander has paired run prevention with strikeout work all season, with 32 strikeouts over 44 innings, and his last outing was his most complete yet: he held the New York Yankees scoreless through 6 1/3 innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven. In last August’s only previous look at the Athletics, he threw three scoreless relief innings, another clue that the matchup has fit him well before he ever took the ball as a starter against them.
For the Athletics, the game starts with Jeffrey Springs, and the contrast is hard to miss. Springs enters his 19th start at 3-8 with a 5.79 ERA, a 1.38 WHIP and 80 strikeouts across 93 1/3 innings, and he has allowed 16 home runs at home, more than anywhere else. He also comes off a rough outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when he gave up six runs on eight hits and four walks over 5 1/3 innings.
That puts extra weight on a park that can suppress offense and on an Athletics lineup trying to respond after a mix-up in shallow right field helped turn a 2-1 game into a 6-1 hole in the opener. Tyler Soderstrom is back as the designated hitter, Zack Gelof has moved to third base with Max Muncy no longer on the major-league roster, and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer is back in the middle infield with Jacob Wilson after Wilson went hitless in his first game off the injured list. But the series still turns on whether Melton keeps doing what he has done all season: attack the zone, miss bats and leave little room for the other side to catch up.
