SEATTLE (AP) — It's only fitting that the last Detroit Tigers starter to match Troy Melton’s most recent feat is no longer on the team.
Melton’s latest strong outing, which came in an 8-0 victory against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night, made it back-to-back starts of seven innings with three or fewer hits allowed. The previous Tigers starter to do that before Melton was Tarik Skubal, who is now employed by the Los Angeles Dodgers
.Melton doesn’t
have the resume as Skubal, the two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. But since coming off the injured list in late May, Melton has been even better than his former teammate, and again looked like one of baseball's best pitchers Tuesday.
Even after Detroit dealt away Skubal and former No. 1 overall draft pick Casey Mize, Melton said he hasn’t felt any added pressure to step up in the starting rotation.
“I’m just trying to get people out,” Melton said. “Yeah, obviously (we) lost two pretty good players. So, got to find a way to replace them however we can.”
But if Melton can keep this up on the mound, the Tigers’ rotation might be just fine — even without Skubal and Mize. Since May 24, Melton has the second-lowest ERA (1.58) in the majors, trailing only Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski (1.41).
With a six-pitch mix, Melton has myriad ways of getting opposing hitters out. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Melton is still learning how to use his full repertoire, too, which was an assessment the 25-year-old agreed with.
“I feel like recently, I really haven’t had my best stuff and command,” Melton said. “It’s just finding a way to grind through and get swing and miss when I need to get swing and miss and get weak contact early in counts. It’s been interesting.”
Melton has been dominant, similar to how Skubal mowed down hitters for years in the Motor City. A sluggish start to the season, though, nearly buried the Tigers, and in part prompted Detroit to deal Skubal before Monday’s trade deadline.
Even so, the Tigers (55-58) have rattled off four straight wins to move within 1 1/2 games of Cleveland for the final American League wild card. Despite Detroit parting ways with Skubal and Mize, Melton is confident his team can still qualify for the postseason for the third consecutive year.
If the Tigers are to do so, it would be in no small part due to Melton’s success.
“I think we definitely have the people here to be able to make a run,” Melton said. “I don’t think anybody in this room would ever question that. Losing two good players (stinks), but we have some players here to fill some shoes.
“And, it’s not going to be one guy that takes over and is going to be Skoob. It’s going to be an effort of all of us.”
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