Tigers Scratch Troy Melton from Astros Opener with Back Tightness

The Detroit Tigers will have to lean into pitching chaos as their starting pitcher for Monday’s game was scratched.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Troy Melton. | Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers are going to have to work Monday’s game against the Houston Astros without their expected starting pitcher.

Per The Athletic’s Chandler Rome on X (formerly Twitter), the Tigers scratched right-handed starting pitcher Troy Melton from Monday’s start due to back tightness. In his place will be right-hander Drew Anderson.

Melton had just come off the 60-day injured list on May 24 and had started four games. He was 3-0 with a 2.81 ERA with 14 strikeouts and six walks in 25.1 innings.

Tigers Make New Pitching Plans

The Tigers hope this is nothing more than a precautionary move. Detroit is still down Justin Verlander, who threw a simulated game in Houston on Monday designed to keep him on track toward a potential activation. He’s been out since April.

Melton came to the rotation at a time in which the Tigers didn’t have Tarik Skubal and lost Casey Mize for the second time. His performance helped keep Detroit afloat amid an awful May.

Anderson has pitched in 25 games this year, with one start, and is 2-3 with a 3.92 ERA. He has struck out 53 and walked 17 in 43.2 innings. He has four holds and two saves in five chances. He’ll start what is sure to be a “pitching chaos” kind of game for Detroit.

Detroit saw its game with Cleveland on Sunday postponed to Sept. 4 due to severe weather that was closing on the Cleveland area pre-game. That works in the Tigers’ favor in this case. Since no one pitched on Sunday, the entire bullpen has a day off so manager A.J. Hinch can deploy his eight bullpen arms how he wishes.

Detroit knows what it will do with the final two rotation spot in their series with the Astros. On Tuesday, the Tigers will start former Astros left-hander Framber Valdez, who left Houston as a free agent in the offseason. He is set to face Houston’s new ace, Hunter Brown, who is expected to be activated from the injured list and make his first MLB start since April.

On Wednesday, the Tigers will start Casey Mize, who was supposed to start Sunday’s game before it was postponed. Detroit waited to make a move on Mize until it knew if the game would be played or not. By waiting, it put off activating him for three days from an adductor strain, gave him a few more days to rest and was able to carry a position player to Houston for the first two games.