| Special to The Detroit News
Detroit — The Tigers needed this one, a 2-0 win over the Miami Marlins on Friday night, perhaps more than the collected players and coaches would admit beforehand.
In the week leading up to Friday’s series opener, the Tigers had lost five in a row, including being swept by the Minnesota Twins with losses by the top two starters in the rotation. The offense looked lifeless. And then Parker Meadows broke his arm, got concussed and bit his mouth to the point of needing stitches in a scary outfield collision on Thursday.
So following nine innings of two-hit, shutout baseball from the pitching staff — primarily keyed in by six sterling innings from Keider Montero and a promising-if-not-great offensive showing, the Tigers could collectively exhale.
“We needed this a lot,” closer Kenley Jansen said. “So I feel like, you know, we started to kind of press a little bit. But then we came out here, played free, and played some good baseball.”
For manager AJ Hinch, Friday’s win and various performances from Montero to fledgling rookie star Kevin McGonigle at shortstop to Javy Báez in center field to Jansen hitting a saves milestone, were proof positive that things are headed in the right direction. It had just been hard to see that earlier this week.
“You know, we won two series this year,” Hinch said. “It didn’t feel like it. We have another opportunity tomorrow. But that was a big performance.”
Montero gave up one of his two hits on the night almost immediately, and could’ve seen it derail his start, surrendering a triple to the second hitter he faced.
Instead, he compartmentalized the problem and struck out the next batter looking before polishing off the inning with an easy fly ball to center field.
And from that point on, Montero had all five pitches working. His sinker proved to be his money pitch on Friday, but all five of his selections were working. He finished going six innings on 80 pitches with seven strikeouts, two hits allowed and one walk.
Montero was done after six, Hinch said, because the Tigers are still working to build him up to handle bigger workloads and longer innings. Báez joked in a postgame TV interview and in the clubhouse about how Montero finally went longer than four innings.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 2, Marlins 0
“I knew that I had a chance to break the string of losing, and I know I had a responsibility for that,” Montero said via a translator.
“So fortunately, we did it good. We won, we broke the streak, and I’m feeling very, very bad for Parker. I feel terrible for him. But we’re playing for him as well. And we’re looking forward to having back as soon as he can, as soon as he is 100 percent.”
Báez himself played his part on Friday, sliding into center field to fill in for Meadows and hitting a home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the Tigers up, 2-0.
Marlins starter Chris Paddack, who the Tigers are familiar with, tried to get one too many breaking balls past the veteran hitter, who flung the ball out to left field. Báez admitted afterwards he didn’t know if the ball had enough to get out.
“Honestly, don’t know where the ball landed,” Baez said. “I think it hit the top of the fence, right? But I mean, I was — I went to get it out there and I finally got it good.”
Hinch had ample praise for Báez and the role he plays for this Tigers team.
“I just think he’s like a kid and he likes playing out there,” Hinch said. “But I don’t see an energy boost or a difference in him as much as I just see a willing teammate go out and fill a void that was unfortunately open.”
With Báez moving to center field, that slid McGonigle to shortstop, his more natural position but hadn’t played much yet at this level. He didn’t miss a beat.
Along with another solid offensive outing, McGonigle showed off impressive range at the position, going to his right, away from first base, and firing a throw across the diamond from the hole to beat out a runner at first base.
Hinch didn’t hesitate to highlight how meaningful those moments are for the young player.
“He’s learning lessons, and some are positive experiences, some are — I mean, that’s got to feel great,” Hinch said. “When you’re new to this league, and new to this team, and continuing to find a way to help him win, that’s pretty awesome for him. And he’s handled the back and forth between third and short exceptionally well, which shouldn’t get overlooked.”
And then there’s Jansen, a veteran closer and World Series champion.
He got his first save as a Tiger on Friday night, which also happened to push the reliever into tie with Lee Smith for third all-time on the career saves list. It also happened to be the first time Jansen got to go to the mound with the prepared stadium intro welcoming him.
“At the end of day, man, you just want to be in the playoffs,” Jansen said. “And me being three years already, not to be in the playoffs, that’s the goal. And we just gotta keep, you know — one game at a time to get what we want to get.”
And Friday night is what it could start to look like for the Tigers when it all clicks — maybe with a few more runs future outings, though. Hinch did suggest that the hitting and traffic on the basepaths felt better than the scoreline indicates.
It’s still early, and these Tigers are still figuring themselves out. But now, after a win to snap a losing streak, they can also unclench their jaws and chase a series win on Saturday.
“Any win is a good win at this point based on how the last series went,” Hinch said.
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
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