Jackson Jobe electric in first start back as Tigers whack Giants 8-0

SAN FRANCISCO – He struck out the first batter almost on cue, and if not, someone else must’ve scripted it for Jackson Jobe, the youngster with the triple-digit heat who flashed potential for a brief moment before Tommy John surgery cost him 14 months.

Well, the 24-year-old is back, and it would be irresponsible to get carried away with his five-inning, one-hit shutout performance here at Oracle Park Saturday, Aug. 8. So, we won’t. But no one is saying you can’t.

Or shouldn’t – no one would blame you. Here was the third-overall pick from the 2021 draft showing why he was the third-overall pick in the 2021 draft.

A 100-mph pitch in the first inning? To the first batter? To get his first strikeout of the season?

Yes, yes, and yes, and it’d be silly to suggest it was anything other than electric, and also poised, for this isn’t just a flamethrower. Jobe is a pitcher, with a four-pitch arsenal, an arsenal that should keep expanding, too.

Maybe it wasn’t shocking that Jobe looked so good in his first start back. He looked promising last season, too. Then he had time to study pitching, think about pitching, and work on pitching as he rehabbed. In other words, he returned a better pitcher than he was before he got injured.

Where this goes is hard to say, but his presence felt different, and you can bet his teammates felt it, and wanted to hold up their end to his eye-popping start. They did, finally, breaking through for a run in the sixth and then seven more in the seventh and eighth.

The usual suspects did the damage, as the Tigers beat the Giants, 8-0, to even the series and climb back to within three games of .500.

Zack McKinstry thought he had an inside-the-park home run in the seventh, but the umpire ruled the ball wedged under the padding at the wall, was unplayable, and therefore a ground rule double.

It appeared that Jung Hoo Lee had a play on the ball but slowed up and chose to let it roll knowing – hoping? – it would get lodged under the padding just above the warning track dirt. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, as Kevin McGonigle lifted a semi-blooper over third base for a single and drove McKinstry home.

That gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead; they’d scored their first run when Spencer Torkelson drew a walk with the bases loaded in the sixth.

Before that, Landen Roupp stymied the Tigers, keeping them off balance with slick sinker/changeup/curve mix. Only Dillon Dingler squared his bat against Roupp, but that was a hard liner right at the centerfielder.

McGonigle’s single broke the tension, though, and how fitting for the rookie to get on base for his 200th time this season.

After he singled, Dingler doubled (of course), Eduardo Valencia doubled – another rookie making an impression – Max Clark tripled (his first) and pumped his fists when he slid into third.

Clark also made a highlight catch earlier after losing the ball in the sun as he sprinted back to the warning track. At the last moment, he reached out and snagged as he ran into the wall and bounced back.

The Tigers put up seven runs in the inning and looked more like the offense they’d been for much of the last couple months.

So, yeah, Jobe. It’d be easy to overstate what he did in his first major league start in nearly 14 months. Topping 100-mph in the first inning?

This wasn’t just heat, though. This was a changeup that hit the low 90s, a slider that, well, slid … off the edge of the counter. This was a curve ball that Jobe was happy to throw and used to strike out Christian Koss in the third, for example. Koss was so flummoxed he didn’t swing.

Jobe, as mentioned, struck out four, though that number doesn’t capture what it looked like to face him. The Giants’ press box is not only open air but perched low and directly behind home plate, and so you could hear the hissing of Jobe’s fastball and see the break on the ball.

That kind of velocity and that kind of variety is a nasty combination. As A.J. Hinch said before the game, “he’s got weapons.”

Jobe, that is. And he is also a long way from becoming the pitcher he and the Tigers think he can become.

Tyler Holton was effective once again and threw two scoreless innings. Ty Madden threw a scoreless eighth and ninth.

The Tiger’s ace, obviously. Or maybe it won’t be so obvious next season … or next month, but then that’s getting ahead of things. For now, Troy Melton is the ace and, by numbers, the most dominant pitcher in the American League.

Melton was unhittable during his last outing – in Seattle. The Tigers will need him to be similarly filthy Sunday, Aug. 9, as the Giants throw out Logan Webb, their ace, and one of the better pitchers in the National – he finished fourth in Cy Young voting last season.

The Tigers will be trying to get to two games under .500 to set up a big homestand with Cleveland and Chicago.

Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jackson Jobe electric in first start back as Tigers whack Giants 8-0