Keider Montero had one of his best outings of the season against the Minnesota Twins.
He’ll look for a repeat when his Detroit Tigers host the Twins in a Wednesday afternoon game.
Montero tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings against Minnesota on June 11, limiting the Twins to four hits and one walk while striking out four.
The right-hander, though, is coming off one of his roughest outings, as Cleveland racked up six runs on eight hits off him over four innings on Friday.
Montero (9-8, 3.52 ERA) was fortunate to get a no-decision in a contest the Tigers lost 7-6.
“It was an outing where I struggled with the location of my changeup,” Montero said through an interpreter. “It was slippery coming out of my hand. My hand was wet the whole day, and I was struggling to pinpoint what I wanted. It looked like they eliminated that pitch from their approach, and they were looking for the slider and curveball off my fastball.”
Montero’s changeup was ineffective, making him vulnerable to a Guardians team he had blanked for 6 1/3 innings on Aug. 13 despite not recording a strikeout.
“He didn’t have a feel for all of his pitches, and if they could eliminate something, it put a lot of pressure on his other pitches,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said after Montero’s most recent start.
Montero is 1-0 with a 3.74 ERA in four career starts against Cleveland.
Right-hander Zebby Matthews (9-9, 4.69 ERA), Minnesota’s starter on Wednesday, endured one of his worst outings this season at Detroit on June 11. He gave up seven runs and nine hits, including three homers, over six innings in an 11-0 loss.
In his last outing on Friday, Matthews also gave up three homers among four runs in five innings in a 4-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He had held the White Sox to one run over 8 1/3 innings in his previous start. Matthews also gave up just one run in each of his previous two starts.
“It’s tough,” he said. “You want to go out there and win the games. I wasn’t able to do that. It’s really frustrating, especially coming off the month there. I expect to go there and win that game.”
Matthews is 1-1 with a 6.00 ERA in three career starts against the Tigers.
The American League Central clubs have split the first two games of the series. Detroit (66-79) pulled out a 5-4 win on Monday, and Minnesota (69-76) collected a 3-2 victory on Tuesday.
Tigers infielder Kevin McGonigle strengthened his case for the Rookie of the Year award with a home run in each game.
Kody Clemens’ two-run homer in the sixth inning proved to be the decisive blow for the Twins in Tuesday’s matchup. Clemens has 25 homers in his career year, and four of them have come against the Tigers. He played 56 games for the Tigers in 2022, his rookie season.
“We haven’t had that great of a month,” Clemens said, “and coming off that, for the bullpen to clutch up and basically not let up any runs, that was great.”
–Field Level Media
