Tigers open post-deadline stretch with 8-0 win in Seattle

Seattle — Nobody asked Troy Melton to fill anybody else’s shoes. It wasn’t his burden to take over the mantle of ace of staff with Tarik Skubal gone.

But if actions speak louder than words, he seems to have accepted the challenge.

Melton was brilliant Tuesday, pitching seven scoreless, three-hit innings in the Tigers’ 8-0 romp over the Seattle Mariners in the first of three at T-Mobile Park.

BOX SCORE: Tigers 8, Mariners 0

With the win, the Tigers (55-58) climb to five games back in the Central Division and just 1.5 games back in the Wild Card race, pulling even with the Mariners.

Melton lowered his ERA to 1.58 in 12 starts.

The Tigers are 10-2 in his starts and he’s allowed two runs or less in all of them.  

Since returning to the big leagues on May 24, only Jacob Misiorowski (1.41) has a lower ERA in game (minimum of 50 innings). His 1.58 ERA over his first 12 starts this season is the second lowest in club history to start a season since Doyle Alexander in 1987 (1.53).

Pretty good.

The Mariners hit just two balls hard off him and no extra base hits. The 18 balls they put in play had an average exit velocity of 82.5 mph.

He was in trouble just once. In the fourth, Randy Arozarena singled and Julio Rodriguez worked an eight-pitch walk with one out. The one out was recorded on an outstanding running catch by Max Clark in center field. He covered 121 feet with elite sprint speed of 30 feet per second and caught a sinking liner on a slide.

But Melton ended the threat striking out Josh Naylor and Cal Raleigh with nasty splitters.

He had every pitch in his arsenal working and at his disposal, but he was leaning on his splitter and cutter of a four-seam fastball that sat at 96 but was ringing 98 a lot.

He ended his outing by breaking Brendan Donovan’s bat on a soft liner right back to him. Fitting.

The Tigers took command of the game with a two-out burst in the third inning. Zach McKinstry, who had three hits and a walk, started the inning with a double but ended up getting thrown out at the plate on a go-on-contact play from third base on a ground out by Gleyber Torres.

But singles by Dillon Dingler, Riley Greene and Colt Keith, with a throwing error mixed in, produced three fast runs.

Keith, who had three hits, singled in two runs with Greene hustling around from second to beat a strong throw from right-fielder Dominic Calzone.

Greene, who broke a 0-for-15 skid, blasted his 16th home run with two outs in the fifth. He jumped a first-pitch changeup from Mariners’ right-hander Emerson Hancock and destroyed it. The ball left his bat at 104.9 mph and flew 403 feet into the bleachers in right-center.

The Tigers finished it off with a four-run ninth off nearly-acquired reliever Seranthony Dominguez. Torres slugged his seventh homer, a two-run blast to left. Dingler followed that with his 24th to right-center.

They ended up chasing Dominguez in his Mariners’ debut. He faced six hitters and recorded one out.

It was the sixth straight game the Tigers scored at least eight runs. That ties a club record last done in 1927.

It was also the club’s 11th shutout, third most in baseball.

The Tigers are 33-20 since June 1.

All good things.

This story will be updated.

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers open post-deadline stretch with 8-0 win in Seattle