Troy Melton turned a tense week into a clean win. He struck out a career-best nine in 5.1 innings Wednesday, and the Tigers beat the Athletics 6-1 at Comerica Park to run their winning streak to four games.
That matters because the Tigers are not just winning one game at a time. They have won seven of their last eight, are 20-12 since June 1 and sit 4.5 games back in the Wild Card race. In that stretch, Melton gave them exactly what they needed: one earned run allowed, one unearned run charged, and an ERA trimmed to 1.82.
His fastball-cutter combination did most of the work. Melton threw his cutter at 94 and 95 mph, and four of his nine strikeouts came with that pitch. He used it to finish off Henry Bolte, Zack Gelof and Jeff McNeil in the fifth inning, then kept getting ahead with 98-mph heaters and sharp pitches that moved late enough to miss barrels. AJ Hinch called Melton fantastic, and the numbers backed it up.
The outing also fit a bigger pattern. Tigers starting pitchers have now allowed four runs or fewer in 38 of the last 39 games, a run of stability that has kept this team upright while the week around it has been anything but calm. Joey Cora and the club mutually parted company on Tuesday, Justin Verlander said before Wednesday’s game that this would be his final season, and Dillon Dingler left in the second inning after a foul tip struck his right hand.
Melton did not sound interested in any of it once he took the mound. My focus isn't anywhere except executing the next pitch, he said, adding that once you get in between the lines, you have a job to do. That is how the Tigers have kept winning through the noise: they have stayed on the pitch in front of them, and for now that has been enough to keep them moving up the standings.
Keider Montero finished the job with 1.2 scoreless innings, and the Tigers left Wednesday with another series win and another reminder that their rotation is carrying the load. The open question is whether Dingler’s hand injury costs them more than a single game, because the rest of the club has already shown it can keep going.
