Detroit Tigers celebrate winning AL wild card in 2025 MLB playoffs
The Detroit Tigers celebrate a 6-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the AL wild card, advancing to the ALDS in the 2025 MLB postseason.
SEATTLE — Right-hander Troy Melton will start for the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday, Oct. 4, against the Seattle Mariners in the MLB postseason.
The 24-year-old won’t take on the workload of a traditional starter at T-Mobile Park. He should pitch at least two or three innings, so don’t be surprised if he is limited to 40-50 pitches.
Melton reacted to the opportunity Friday.
“Once you get out on the mound, the job is the exact same — you want to get outs as fast as you can, as much as you can,” Melton said. “It makes it easy when my mentality doesn’t change for me at all. Whatever they need from me, I’m ready to go for whatever they want.”
In 2025, Melton posted a 2.76 ERA with 15 walks and 36 strikeouts across 45â…” innings in 16 games (five starts), averaging 2.9 innings per game. His fastball registered 96.8 mph with a 29.7% whiff rate, while his slider limited opponents to a .146 batting average with a 29.3% whiff rate.
Manager A.J. Hinch trusts Melton, whether it’s as a starter for Game 1 or as a reliever in Games 4 or 5.
“We see this guy as a starting pitcher,” Hinch said, “so I don’t want the back of the baseball card to take anything away from what we see. This is a guy with multiple plus pitches, high-end velocity. He can throw strikes in all quadrants of the strike zone. He can attack lefties. He can attack righties. He is a starter.”
Hinch informed Melton he would start Game 1 in the best-of-five ALDS during the Tigers’ flight from Cleveland to Seattle after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in the best-of-three AL wild-card series, sharing the news via text message.
“You’re going Game 1,” Hinch texted.
“Let’s go,” Melton responded.
The 24-year-old began the season in Double-A Erie in early April, advanced to Triple-A Toledo in early June and made his MLB debut in late July.
Six months ago, could Melton have imagined himself starting Game 1 in the ALDS?
“Yeah,” Melton said.
“Honestly, if I could have drawn it up, this is what I would be doing,” he continued. “It’s pretty cool looking back on it of how fast it really has happened. When I started the year in Erie, I definitely didn’t want to finish the year in Erie.”
Melton pitched out of the bullpen in Game 2 of the series against the Guardians, in which the Tigers lost, 6-1. He surrendered four runs in the eighth inning, but he threw just 14 pitches.
He gave up a go-ahead home run to Brayan Rocchio on a two-strike 99.9 mph fastball.
“Flushing it is what I’ve done,” Melton said. “The only three pitches that I made mistakes on, they hit all three of them. It’s going to happen to you sometimes. It’s nothing I’m really too concerned with.”
After Melton, the Tigers will open the door to the bullpen in Game 1 against the Mariners.
Hinch has a plan.
But he isn’t giving away any secrets.
“We try not to script out too much because I don’t know how the game is going to go,” Hinch said. “I’m going to read the game, and I have an idea of where his limitations are, but I hate to even put that on him going into this start because of the (Aug. 13) outing where it was 50 pitches, five innings. Not a traditional start, but not necessarily a limited one either.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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