Baltimore — Not much on Troy Melton’s shoulders as he made his season debut Sunday night.
The Orioles punched the Tigers in the face in the first game of the doubleheader, walking off Kenley Jansen with a two-out, two-strike, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth.
That meant Melton was carrying the weight of an eight-game losing streak, not to mention the accompanying 2-19 skid and the MLB-worst 7-21 road record and everything else the Tigers have been grinding through this month.
Not heavy at all.
Fresh off a four-month convalescence to first calm the inflammation in his right elbow and then rebuild his arm strength, Melton subdued the Orioles for 5.2 innings and the Tigers sluffed off the streak with a 4-1 win at Camden Yards.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 4, Orioles 1
Melton allowed just two hits, both singles, and two of his three strikeouts came against Orioles’ All-Star Gunnar Henderson. Three walks caused what little distress he had.
But he was sharp and efficient for the most part. He needed just 37 pitches to get through three innings and 65 to get through five. His four-seam fastball was ringing in between 96 and 98 mph, and he was deftly mixing sliders and splitters to lefties, sinkers and cutters to right-handers.
He gave up some loud contact late in his outing. Blaze Alexander (100 mph off the bat) and Jackson Holliday (105.8 mph) flew out to the wall in right in back-to-back at-bats in the fifth.
The Orioles lone run came in the fourth after Melton walked Adley Rutschman to start the inning. A single by Pete Alonso advanced him to third and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Samuel Basallo.
Impressive work, much-needed work.
Lefty Tyler Holton, who has endured three losses and allowed six runs (four earned) in his last four games, got four straight outs, with two strikeouts, to get the game to the eighth.
And with Jansen, Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest all working in Game 1, it fell to Drew Anderson to lock it down.
It wasn’t easy. Of course it wasn’t easy. Nothing has been easy for the Tigers.
Anderson pitched around a one-out single in the eighth, but walked the first two batters in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate.
Anderson struck out Leodys Taveras, Tyler O’Neill and Alexander to earn his second save.
The Tigers, as they did in Game 1, took a fast 2-0 lead.
Dillon Dingler slugged a two-run homer off Orioles’ lefty Trevor Rogers in the first inning. The ball left his bat at 104 mph with a 33-degree launch angle and flew 382 feet into the seats in left.
It was his 10th home run.
But, also like the first game, the bats went immediately cold. Rogers set down 11 straight hitters until Spencer Torkelson walked to lead off the fifth.
But here’s where the Game 2 veered from Game 1 for the Tigers.
Wenceel Perez followed Torkelson’s walk with a single and with one out, No. 9 hitter Zack Short walked to load the bases.
Rogers got Matt Vierling to foul out for the second out and he got ahead of rookie Kevin McGonigle 1-2.
But McGonigle, who saved one if not two runs in the second inning with a leaping catch of a line drive by Alexander, worked the count full and lined a two-run single to center.
Off the schneid, at last.
This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Troy Melton helps Tigers bounce back to win nightcap vs. Orioles
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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