If Dame Fortune had a nice eye out for the White Sox as hits kept plopping just out of reach of fielders during last night’s five-run inning, she stepped up her staring today, because this is Tarik Skubal’s turn in the Tiger rotation. Still, the all-everything star is being held back a day to face the mighty (?) Twins. Instead, Detroit is giving the ball to rookie righty Troy Melton for his third major league start.
Melton hasn’t started an MLB game this month, and had a mixed bag his other times out — seven innings of shutout ball against Arizona on July 28, but six runs in five innings against the Pirates on July 23. He has big platoon splits, with righties hitting only .188 against him compared to .269 for lefties. He throws a lot of sliders, which should present a challenge for Luis Robert Jr..
Facing Melton will be Shane Smith, who has had two short starts since coming back from an ankle injury, giving up two runs in each and, as usual, struggling once he got to 70 pitches. He did manage a career high (okay, he’s a rookie, so “career” is stretching it) eight K’s of the Mariners last time out.
The lineup behind Smith has both catchers starting, Edgar Quero behind the plate and Kyle Teel at DH, and nobody getting a getaway day off.
The Tigers are also mainly going with their first string.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 Central on a beautiful day for baseball, a sunny 82° with light wind from left to right — usual broadcast suspects.