CHICAGO - The Detroit Tigers’ playoff chase ended the way too many road games have gone this season: with a flat lineup, a battered pitching staff and a long, miserable night in the rain.
The Tigers were beaten 8-1 by the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, Sept. 20 at Rate Field, officially closing the door on any postseason hope in their final road game of the year. Detroit finished 34-47 away from home, its first sub-.500 road mark since 2022, when it went 30-50.
The setting matched the result. The game didn’t even begin until after a 3-hour, 50-minute rain delay, and when it finally did, the field looked like it had been soaked from every angle. Fans sat through the weather in ponchos and trash bags with cutouts for their arms and heads while puddles collected near the edges of the field.
Then things went from wet to worse.
Right-hander Troy Melton, who started for Detroit, was pulled in the fourth inning after what appeared to be an injury. Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter went to the mound, then manager A.J.
Hinch and a trainer joined him before Melton was removed with Chicago leading 3-0. Melton didn’t show visible signs of injury, but left the game anyway.
Left-hander Tyler Holton came on in relief.
Melton was charged with four runs on four hits in 3⅔ innings. He walked three and struck out four.
The 25-year-old had been diagnosed in late February with right elbow inflammation, spent time on the 60-day injured list and returned on May 24. Despite that early setback, he had said Saturday, “I feel really good,” and added, “Honestly, like health-wise, it's been a really good year for me. ... It's been really good.
Melton entered the game with strong numbers for his young career. He had posted a 2.60 ERA over his first 23 big league starts dating to July 2025, the lowest ERA by a Tiger in his first 23 starts since Mark Fidrych in 1976, when Fidrych had a 2.37 ERA. But Melton had struggled recently, allowing 11 earned runs over his previous three starts while giving up 18 hits, six walks and three hit batters.
He also said Saturday that the issue wasn’t physical.
“When I try too hard, it's usually the wrong direction,” he said on Saturday. “So just kind of being out there and being myself and slowing the game down a little bit better and really like obviously one of these games and I want to win every game of pitching, but not making it too much pressure, too big of a deal. I think that's something I've kind of gotten away from.”
By the time Melton and Holton were out of the game, the White Sox had pushed the lead to 6-0 after scoring two runs off Ty Madden on two hits.
Detroit finally got on the board in the eighth. Riley Greene doubled, Eduardo Valencia singled and Max Clark drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. But Chicago answered again, scoring twice against left-hander Brant Hurter in the eighth on two hits and two walks to put the game away.
The loss left the Tigers with little more than the stretch run ahead, and Hinch made clear before the game that his team wasn’t going to treat the final week like dead time.
“When seasons start to wind down and you are on the outside looking in, there's a tendency to think that everything is over, and it's not,” Hinch said before the game. “We are too talented and too driven to simply just show up and play a scrimmage the next seven or eight days.
That's not how we're going to operate. So, mentally, we need to keep ourselves sharp, and we need to execute.
Nobody wants to finish their season on the downslide.
That final homestand now includes the debut of River Ryan on Monday and the career finale for Justin Verlander on Saturday.
Ryan, a right-hander acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Tarik Skubal trade on Aug. 1 and the Tigers’ No. 3 prospect, will make his Detroit debut Monday night against the Washington Nationals at Comerica Park. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. on Detroit SportsNet, and Keider Montero is also expected to pitch in the game.
MLB Pipeline lists Ryan as the Tigers’ top pitching prospect. The 28-year-old appeared in four games for the Dodgers in 2024, going 1-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 20⅓ innings. He’s 6 feet 2 and 195 pounds, and has made two Triple-A Toledo appearances since the trade, though he’s thrown just 4⅔ innings while working back from a hamstring injury.
“He's very talented,” Hinch said. “The next test for him is to come and hopefully get a couple outings over the course of the week, albeit shorter than a normal start.
He's using his pitches. He's recovering fine.
He's throwing his normal bullpens, and of course, we want to get him around our team. And because we expect him to be a big part of what we're doing moving forward.
He's been in the big leagues before, so it's not like a debut, but it will feel like it, given you know he's brand new to the organization.”
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