ANAHEIM — For eight innings, the Detroit Tigers looked like a team trying to rope a greased pig in a phone booth. Four hits scattered across five frames, nothing stringing together, Reid Detmers dealing for the Angels like a man who had somewhere to be. Then the ninth inning happened.
Hao-Yu Lee, down to the Tigers’ last out, launched a shot into the gap at Angel Stadium — a two-out, two-run double that flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 Detroit win on Thursday night. Lee stood on second base screaming, and for good reason. His club had been sleepwalking through eight innings and woke up just in time to keep breathing.
The rally started modestly enough. Dillon Dingler got plunked and gave way to pinch-runner James Outman. Outman swiped second. Riley Greene drew a walk. A double steal was on with Kerry Carpenter at the plate, but Carpenter flied out — and both runners scrambled back to their bags, lucky not to get doubled off. That left it to Lee, who didn’t waste the reprieve. He drove a ball into the outfield gap, and two runs scored.
Angels closer Kirby Yates took the loss. Detmers, the Angels’ starter, had held Detroit to four hits through five innings before the bullpen took over, and for most of the night the Tigers’ offense looked like it might not score if they played until Tuesday.
The real story, though, was on the mound — where games are won and lost, no matter what the spreadsheet crowd tells you. Troy Melton, a Newport Beach kid pitching an hour from where he grew up, gave Detroit exactly what they needed: 5⅔ innings, nine strikeouts, one run. He walked four and threw 27 pitches in the first inning alone, loading the bases with one out. A lesser pitcher folds right there. Melton limited the damage to a single run and then settled in, striking out the side in the second and grinding through the middle frames.
“Nothing really bothers Troy,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the game. “He’s a pretty cool customer.”
Melton has now allowed one earned run or fewer in seven of his last nine starts, including his last five. The film doesn’t lie — the kid’s figuring it out.
Keider Montero handled the rest, and he was nails until the ninth, when the first two Angels reached base and the whole thing threatened to unravel. Kevin McGonigle bailed him out with a defensive play at third that probably saved the game, and Montero escaped without allowing a run. Sometimes it’s not the double that wins you a ballgame. Sometimes it’s the kid at third who eats dirt and makes the throw.
The win pushed Detroit to 45-52. The Angels fell to 38-60. It was the first of 13 games in 13 days for the Tigers, who are fighting to stay relevant before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Hinch said he didn’t feel the need to hold a team meeting coming out of the All-Star break.
“We know exactly what’s ahead,” Hinch said. “We know exactly where we’re at, and we feel really good coming out of the break with how we played for the last couple of months.”
They didn’t play particularly well for eight innings Thursday. But they played one inning like a team that isn’t ready to quit, and on this night, one inning was enough.
Tarik Skubal gets the ball Saturday for Game 2 of the series.
Sources:
- Yahoo Sports / Detroit Free Press — Tigers offense finally shows up in 9th-inning rally over Angels
- r/baseball — Highlight: Hao-Yu Lee two-run double