The Tigers came out of the break and spent most of the night flirting with trouble, then finally found their swing when it mattered most.
Down 1-0 entering the ninth, Detroit scratched across two runs and stole a 2-1 win over the Angels, avoiding a shutout in its first game back. Hao-Yu Lee delivered the big blow with a two-run double, turning a frustrating night into a comeback victory.
Troy Melton handled the early turbulence and kept the Tigers in it. The Angels got to him right away in the first, when Zach Neto singled, Nolan Schanuel walked and Jorge Soler followed with another free pass.
Josh Lowe then grounded out with the bases loaded to bring home the game’s first run. Melton needed 27 pitches to escape the inning, but he limited the damage to one.
From there, the pattern was familiar: Detroit put runners on, then left them there. Dillon Dingler had a two-out single in the first.
Matt Vierling singled with two outs in the third. Riley Greene doubled with two outs in the fourth.
Ben Malegeri doubled in the fifth. None of it led to a run.
Melton kept working through jams on the other side, too. Mike Trout opened the third with a double, Schanuel walked again, and Melton still got out clean.
In the fourth, Vaughn Grissom walked to start the inning, and in the fifth Neto led off with a single before the Angels eventually ran themselves into an out. Melton’s night ended with two outs in the sixth, and his final line was 5.2 innings, four hits, one run, one earned run, four walks and nine strikeouts on 94 pitches.
The bullpen did its part from there. Keider Montero finished the sixth, then worked a scoreless seventh and eighth.
Ryan Zeferjahn and Sam Bachman also kept Detroit quiet in the middle innings, while the Tigers kept coming up empty. Even a stolen-base challenge in the eighth, after Vierling singled and moved up on a steal, didn’t change the scoreboard.
Then the ninth finally broke open. Kirby Yates came in with Detroit down to its last chance, and Dingler was hit by a pitch to start the inning.
James Outman pinch-ran and stole second with one out. Riley Greene walked.
With two outs, Lee came through with the double that scored both runners and gave the Tigers their first lead of the night.
Samy Natera Jr. came on and got the final out of the ninth. Montero returned for the bottom half and had to work through some pressure after hitting Jorge Soler and allowing a single to Jose Siri, but he held on. The Angels challenged one play that led to the second out, but the call on the field stood, and Montero finished the job to close out Detroit’s comeback.
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Jackson Jobe's Latest Rehab Step Has Tigers Fans Watching Closely
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Jobe threw 44 pitches over three innings, a modest but meaningful increase as the Tigers continue to monitor his workload. He is not ready to rejoin the club yet, and the organization is sticking to its patient approach, but every inning he logs now gives Detroit a better sense of how close he is to being part of the conversation again. [Read more 🡒]