Detroit — It’s been an emotional week already for the Tigers.
On Tuesday, the club and impactful third base coach Joey Cora suddenly, mutually, parted company.
Before the game Wednesday, Hall of Fame-bound Justin Verlander announced that this would be his final season. Not completely unexpected for the 43-year-old, but still a lot to process, for the organization, for his teammates and for the fanbase.
Then, in the second inning, All-Star catcher Dillon Dingler had to leave the game after a pitch from starter Troy Melton caromed off his glove directly off his right hand.
And yet, between the lines, they were unfazed; all business.
The Tigers continued their mid-summer surge, beating the Athletics 6-1 at Comerica Park. It was their fourth straight win, their fourth straight series win and their seventh win in the last eight games.
“We have a tough team,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We’re going through a lot, whether it’s the beginning of the season to all the conversation around our team for a few months now to this homestand. But our guys play the game. I appreciate the resiliency of this group. They just continue to put one foot in front of the other.
“Today was a really good series win.”
The Tigers are 20-12 since June 1 and are 4.5 games back in the Wild Card race.
“I don’t know if guys are playing with a sense of urgency,” Verlander said. “I don’t think that’s the right way to put it. Guys are clicking. Guys are healthy. Our rotation is doing what they’re supposed to do, feeding off one another and giving us a chance to win night in and night out.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 6, Athletics 1
That was certainly the case Wednesday. Melton picked up where Tarik Skubal left off Tuesday. He struck out a career-best nine in 5.1 innings and was charged with one unearned run, lowering his ERA to 1.82.
“Once you get in between the lines, you have a job to do,” Melton said when asked about all the potential distractions this week. “My focus isn’t anywhere except executing the next pitch. And if you ask the guys in this clubhouse, they will tell you, when they are playing their focus is on the play or the pitch.
“Baseball is a funny game like that, where you can just block everything else out and play. We’ve done a good job of that.”
Tigers’ starting pitchers are on a roll. They have allowed four runs or less in 38 of the last 39 games.
“We have a really good starter in the bullpen, too,” Melton said, referencing Keider Montero, who pitched 1.2 scoreless innings in relief Wednesday. “We just have a lot of options and a lot of really good players. It’s super cool to watch Tarik Skubal work and then Jack (Flaherty) and Casey (Mize), what they’ve been doing, and Framber (Valdez).
“It’s just awesome to carry the baton from the guy who pitched before me and then pass it on to the next guy and watch them just keep it rolling.”
Melton dominated the Athletics in the early innings with a wicked cutter. He was ripping it at 94 and 95 mph and used it on four of his nine strikeouts.
“Troy was fantastic,” Hinch said. “If it wasn’t for those two innings where they made him really work, even though he got out unscathed, I felt like he was going to go forever, just the way he was throwing the ball.
In the fifth inning, he struck out the side, dispatching Henry Bolte, Zack Gelof and, after a 12-pitch battle, Jeff McNeil, with 98-mph heaters.
And he stayed in control even after swapping out catchers in the second inning.
Melton threw a 95-mph sinker to Jacob Wilson with one out in the second inning. The ball glanced off Dingler’s glove right onto his right hand. He was in obvious pain and Hinch and trainer Ryne Eubanks came out to examine him. After a few practice throws, Dingler was able to finish the inning.
But when his turn to bat came around in the bottom of the inning, Hinch sent up Jake Rogers to pinch-hit.
“When (Dingler) got back to the dugout, it started to swell up,” Hinch said. “We sent him for x-rays. The initial x-rays were negative. We’re going to send him for further x-rays, probably in the morning. But you could see the seams on his hand. He got smoked.”
Rogers responded to the sudden call by clubbing a two-run homer to left to put the Tigers up 3-1.
“It felt good to get in there and have a great day,” said Rogers, who also singled and walked. “I’ve been working my tail off to be better at the plate and we had a little success today.”
The key, too, was that Rogers was able to get right on the same page as Melton. The pitching plan didn’t skip a beat.
“Fett (pitching coach Chris Fetter) did a good job seeking me out and throwing me a crash course,” Rogers said. “I’ve caught Melton a hundred times and at the end of the day, you have to resort to his strengths. But you have to be ready for anything. This just proves, you’ve got to do your homework before the series.”
Said Hinch: “I thought Jake did a great job. He’s calm. He’s perfectly suited for random things that come up during the game. His blood pressure and stress level doesn’t really elevate. I have a lot of trust in him. I thought he had a great game on both sides of the ball.”
Rogers got right on board with Melton’s cutter usage, too.
“His stuff is just so good,” Rogers said. “It started in Houston. When you have a guy like Yordan (Alvarez) looking back and going, ‘What is that?’ It speaks volumes how good that pitch is. And it’s been really good of late. He’s making some really good hitters look silly.”
Rogers and Kevin McGonigle singled with one out in the fifth inning, setting the table for Spencer Torkelson who sent a hanging slider from lefty Jeffrey Springs into the left-field seats for his 15th homer, breaking the game open.
McGonigle, for the 54th time, reached base safely at least twice, extending his MLB rookie record before the All-Star break.
Shut-down pitching, timely hitting, to the point where the Tigers have scored six runs in three straight games — it feels like they’ve gotten back to their identity, which seemed they lost in May.
“This what we always knew we were capable of,” Melton said. “I don’t think there was ever any doubt if we’d start winning games again. We know we have a good formula and we have a lot of really good arms and a lot of really good bats.”
The Athletics played without All-Star first baseman Nick Kurtz, who left in the second inning with an illness.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ Melton has career-high nine strikeouts in win over Athletics
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
