SEATTLE - The Tigers walked into T-Mobile Park with last October still hanging in the air, but they left Tuesday night with something more immediate on their minds: the standings.
Detroit rolled past the Seattle Mariners, 8-0, on Aug. 4, and in the process moved half a game ahead of Seattle in the American League wild-card race. The Tigers improved to 55-58, the Mariners fell to 55-59, and Detroit pulled within 1½ games of the Cleveland Guardians for the final AL wild-card spot. Sitting between the Tigers and Cleveland are the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers, both one game back, along with the Baltimore Orioles, who are tied with Detroit.
The win also kept Detroit’s offense on a historic tear. The Tigers have scored eight runs in six straight games, matching the longest streak in franchise history.
They had last done it from July 4-8, 1927. In this one, though, the bats provided far more support than the final score required.
One run might have been enough with Troy Melton dealing the way he was.
Melton turned in another overpowering outing, continuing a season that has him looking every bit like a future ace. If he had enough innings to qualify, his ERA would rank second-best in baseball.
Riley Greene helped set the tone after taking a day off in West Sacramento and getting Monday off as well. Tigers manager A.J.
Hinch had acknowledged that the All-Star slugger was a little worn down, and the breather seemed to do him good. In the fifth inning, Greene sent a towering drive to center field that kept carrying until it cleared the wall for an insurance run and a 4-0 lead.
Detroit got moving in the third, and Greene was in the middle of it in an indirect way. Zach McKinstry opened the inning with a double after Emerson Hancock had kept the Tigers quiet through the first two frames.
McKinstry was later thrown out at the plate trying to score from third on a grounder to short, but the inning stayed alive. Dillon Dingler followed with a single, then Greene rolled a grounder to short that should have ended the inning.
Instead, Mariners rookie Colt Emerson rushed the throw and sailed it past first, allowing Gleyber Torres to score.
Colt Keith then singled home Dingler and Greene, with Greene diving headfirst into the plate on the latter run. That was the real break in the game.
Detroit kept adding on late. Torres launched a two-run homer in the ninth, and Dingler followed with a solo shot for good measure.
Melton, meanwhile, kept Seattle from ever finding a way back in. He entered the night having allowed more than two runs just once in his previous seven starts, and he extended that run with a polished mix of power and feel. His cutter missed a few times when he was ahead, but he adjusted by leaning on a high-90s four-seamer and a splitter that gave him a clean escape in the fourth.
With runners at first and second and one out, Melton used a 91-mph splitter to strike out Josh Naylor, a pitch that fell off the table so sharply that Naylor could only shake his head on the way back to the dugout. He did the same to Cal Raleigh, the 2025 All-Star, and then pumped his fist as he came off the mound. Melton usually keeps the emotion in check, which has suited him during his rise, but there was no hiding that one.
Jacob Waguespack followed with a scoreless, hitless eighth, and Yilber Diaz, called up from Triple-A Toledo this week and making only his second major league start, handled the ninth without allowing a run. Diaz did allow a couple runners, but he finished the game by striking out the final batter after Dingler won an ABS challenge on the call.
Detroit will send Drew Anderson to the mound Wednesday night at 9:40 p.m. on Detroit SportsNet, with the Tigers hoping he can cover enough innings to avoid turning it into a full-blown bullpen game. Anderson has filled in as a spot starter before and may need to go deep while Hinch manages a rotation missing Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize.
The series wraps Thursday at 4:05 p.m., when Framber Valdez is scheduled to start for the finale. The left-hander has been up and down this season, though he did throw seven innings against the struggling Athletics last weekend. That was his second seven-inning outing in his last four starts.
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