Melton shows mettle in series-clinching scoreless outing

CHICAGO -- Troy Melton didn’t know until about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday that he’d be getting the ball to start the series finale against the White Sox.

It wasn’t necessarily supposed to be a long outing, either. Melton said he was told 2-3 innings, and maybe four if the day goes well. Despite all of that, the 27-year-old rookie right-hander went out and exceeded expectations.

Melton cruised through five innings of scoreless baseball, giving up just one hit while striking out six. The Tigers’ offense mustered only one run, but that ultimately proved to be enough. Led by Melton, Detroit’s pitching staff shut down Chicago in its 1-0, series-clinching victory Wednesday afternoon at Rate Field.

“I think I did a good job of being efficient with it and making it easy for them to keep giving me the ball,” Melton said. “That's the goal every time is to get some quick outs, and I did a good job of that.”

Melton, the No. 6 prospect in Detroit’s system according to MLB Pipeline, looked strong in just his third big league start.

Chicago really got nothing going against the 24-year-old right-hander, who tossed four perfect innings to start his day. White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr., though, gave his team its first baserunner with a double leading off the bottom of the fifth.

Melton didn’t think the pitch Robert hit -- an 0-2 slider down and away -- was terrible. He acknowledged he had to throw that two-strike pitch out of the zone. But he wasn’t fazed by the double, as he then struck out Chicago left fielder Andrew Benintendi on three pitches, getting him to swing through a slider below the zone for the punchout.

“After that [Robert double], with a guy on second base and nobody out, you kind of have an opportunity to take your shot with some strikeouts with the base open,” Melton said. “So definitely, once you get to two strikes, you're trying to put those guys away. There's no reset or anything really, just kind of pitching.”

Melton started the next batter, Sox first baseman Miguel Vargas, with a low sinker for a ball -- his only first-pitch ball of the game. That prompted Jake Rogers to go out to the mound and give Melton some reassurance.

“I just kind of walked out to him and said, 'Hey, look, you're doing incredible,’” Rogers said. “‘Keep doing what you're doing. Don't change anything just because there's a guy on second.'”

Melton came back and got Vargas to swing through a 2-2 four-seamer, and then he got Chicago catcher Edgar Quero to whiff at a 1-2 slider to end the frame.

“Lucky enough, he threw some incredible pitches there and got some good hitters out,” Rogers said. “I just told him to keep calm, keep doing what he's doing, really. That's all I did.”

The Tigers then looked to break through in the top of the sixth.

Kerry Carpenter led off with a single, and Spencer Torkelson followed with a double. Wenceel Pérez did give his team the lead with a sacrifice fly, but the rest of the rally was halted.

Melton set the tone with five dominant innings, though, and Sawyer Gipson-Long, who was activated from the injured list Wednesday morning, followed with two scoreless innings. Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest took care of the final two frames to preserve the shutout.

Melton debuted July 23, but gave up six runs to the Pirates. After that bittersweet moment, he rebounded with seven scoreless innings against the D-backs on July 28 at Comerica Park.

A move to the bullpen post-Trade Deadline hasn’t been an issue, as he’s given up just one run over 5 1/3 innings in two relief appearances.

Getting a chance to start again Wednesday, efficiency was a major aspect of his outing. Again, it could’ve been a limited day for him on the mound, but with a taxed bullpen, Melton went out and put together five innings on just over 11 pitches per frame.

Bouncing between the rotation and bullpen is challenging, and Melton finding some early success doing it is impressive. But his skipper is even happier to see how a young arm, less than a month into his big league career, is handling the moment.

“One of the things I've been asked a lot about him is how he's handling all of this,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He's just taking the ball when we're giving it to him. I'm more impressed by how he's doing than even what he's doing. What he's doing is awesome, but he's handling the moments when we need him to.”