The Detroit Tigers have moved into wild-card contention and a three-game home series against the Colorado Rockies, which begins Tuesday night, could help them close more ground.
The Tigers (73-71) are trying to chase down the American League Central Division rival Minnesota Twins for the last playoff spot and entered Monday 3 1/2 games back. The Rockies (54-90) have the worst record in the National League.
Detroit has won three of its last four games, including two road wins against the Oakland Athletics this past weekend. The Tigers posted a 9-1 victory on Sunday, taking control with a six-run eighth inning.
“The eighth inning has been kind to us almost the whole year,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, whose team had an off day Monday. “A lot of guys had good days. There were a lot of pluses in the at-bat category.”
Detroit rookie shortstop Trey Sweeney, acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline in the Jack Flaherty deal, had his best day in the majors since he was called up from Triple-A Toledo. Sweeney had four hits, including a home run.
“I think everybody knows,” Sweeney said of the standings. “But the main focus is to just keep winning and not pay attention to the outside too much, but control what we can control. Win as many games as we can and hope that we get our shot.”
Parker Meadows drove in two runs, giving him nine RBIs in the last four games.
Tigers rookie right-hander Keider Montero (4-6, 5.47 ERA) will start the series opener. Montero gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings on the road Wednesday against the San Diego Padres in his most recent outing.
Montero, who will be making his 14th start, hasn’t gone more than five innings in his last five outings.
Right-hander Bradley Blalock (1-2, 5.40) is scheduled to start for the Rockies. The 23-year-old rookie, acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers last month, will be making his sixth start this season.
Blalock has given up 10 combines earned runs over his last two outings. In his most recent start, he allowed four runs and four hits in five innings on the road against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. All of the Braves’ runs against him came in the first inning.
“It kind of got away from me there in the first inning,” Blalock said. “I got two quick outs and then I fell apart there. But I was glad I gave my team a chance to win there in the next four innings (and) put up four zeros.”
Blalock walked six Braves batters.
“He battled,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “I like that. I like that about Bradley. He fights and battles, which is what you want. … Six walks, we talked about it after I took him out of the game, and he knows that can’t happen at this level. That’s too much stress, too much pressure to handle if you go out there every fifth day and do that.”
The Rockies, who have won three of their last four games, defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1 on Sunday behind Sam Hilliard’s three-run homer off Hoby Milner.
“Not happy about a couple of my at-bats, the way they went, but I was able to put a good swing on a ball there, left-on-left,” Hilliard said.
–Field Level Media