Troy Melton has won all three of his starts this month.
The Detroit Tigers right-hander and his team hope that trend will continue when they open a four-game series against the visiting Houston Astros on Thursday night.
The Tigers opened their longest homestand of the season — 10 games — with four consecutive victories but dropped the next two contests to the New York Yankees, including 4-2 on Wednesday.
Melton (4-0, 2.56 ERA) has been stellar since coming off the injured list last month. In his most recent outing on Saturday, he limited the Chicago White Sox to a solo homer and three walks while striking out five batters in six innings of a 4-1 victory.
Melton, now 25, made his major league debut last season and posted a 2.76 ERA in 16 appearances (four starts). He’s shown uncommon poise since earning a callup from Triple-A Toledo last July.
“The next time we see Troy Melton rattled might be the first,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s just very much in control of everything he’s doing.”
Melton pitched an inning of scoreless relief against Houston last season.
Rookie right-hander Tatsuya Imai (4-3, 6.15 ERA) is expected to start for the Astros on Thursday.
Imai bounced back in a big way from a disastrous outing against Kansas City in which he gave up five runs in two-thirds of an inning on June 12. He racked up 11 strikeouts without a walk against Cleveland in six innings on Friday. The Guardians did score three runs on six hits during that span, but Imai still recorded his fourth victory, 9-3.
“He came in (Friday) and wanted to show he’s better [than his Kansas City performance],” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He showed he’s something that when his stuff is on, he can be unhittable.”
Espada added that it was Imai’s best outing of the season. A good mix of fastballs and sliders led to the high strikeout total.
“I think my slider was working good,” Imai said through an interpreter. “But for me when I’m throwing the slider, it’s not how big the break is, it’s how much I can … make a rising fastball and then compared to the slider make a gap with the fastball so the batters swing and miss a lot with the slider.”
Imai, 28, departed Japan with the enticement of a three-year, $54 million Astros contract that included incentives. Houston has been waiting for performances such as the one he had Friday.
“He came in (Friday) a little edgy, a little, ‘It’s time to be better,'” Espada said. “And he was better.”
The Tigers can utilize their left-handed bats again with a right-hander on the mound. The Yankees started two lefties in the past two nights, which thrust power hitter Kerry Carpenter and Colt Keith into pinch-hitting roles.
The Astros and Tigers are quite familiar with each other despite not being in the same division. They met early last week in Houston, with the Astros recording two victories during the three-game series. Imai didn’t pitch in that series and has never faced the Tigers.
Houston has won six of its last eight contests, including a 3-1 victory at Toronto on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
