DETROIT – Rookie Keider Montero threw Detroit’s first singles shutout in three seasons and the Tigers beat the Colorado Rockies 11-0 on Tuesday night.
Montero (5-6) made his 14th major league start and became the first Tigers pitcher with nine shutout innings since Spencer Turnbull’s no-hitter in Seattle on May 18, 2021. At 24 years, 66 days, Montero is the third-youngest Tigers pitcher with a shutout in the last 20 seasons, only Justin Verlander (23 years, 91 days) and Michael Fulmer (23 years, 152 days) are better.
“I just tried to get every pitch in the strike zone and (catcher Jake Rogers) had a great game,” Montero said through an interpreter. “Regardless of the score, I attacked the hitters. I knew I had the guys behind me who were going to make the plays.”
The right-hander, who recorded his 16th complete game without conceding a goal this season, needed 96 pitchers while facing the minimum 27 batters, allowing three singles and striking out five batters without allowing a walk.
“It’s obviously a huge night for Keider and a huge night for us,” said Tigers manager AJ Hinch.
Montero was originally scheduled to throw for Dillon Dingler, who had caught him regularly in Triple-A Toledo and Detroit, but a last-minute lineup change meant he was paired with Rogers for only the second time this season.
“We hit him with a new catcher about 90 minutes before the game, which wasn’t the plan, but he and Jake did a great job,” Hinch said.
All of Colorado’s singles – Ryan McMahon in the second, Ezequiel Tovar in the seventh and Aaron Schunk in the eighth – were followed by double plays in the Tigers’ infield.
“He just has a really solid four-pitch mix — a lively fastball, two different breaking balls and a good changeup — and he throws a lot of strikes,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “A game like that is rare in this era — a complete game with a low pitch count.”
“But it shows what you can do when you change the speed, move the ball on both sides of the plate and keep it down.”
Parker Meadows hit a solo home run, his seventh, in the first inning, scoring three runs.
Rockies starter Bradley Blalock (1-3) allowed five runs and five hits with five walks in four innings.
“Bradley was the opposite of Montero,” Black said. “He didn’t walk a batter in nine innings, and Bradley had five walks and over 80 pitches in four innings. You have to get the ball in the strike zone.”
Colorado pitchers retired the final 23 batters in Sunday’s 4-1 win at Milwaukee, but that streak ended when Meadows hit Blalock’s second pitch into the right-field bleachers. It was the first time Meadows and Blalock – high school teammates at Grayson High School in Georgia – faced each other in the major leagues.
The Tigers loaded all bases in the second with two walks and an error, and Riley Greene hit a triple into the right field corner to make it 4-0. Matt Vierling followed with an RBI single to give Detroit a five-run lead.
Meadows had a two-run single against Anthony Molina in the sixth inning to make it 7-0, and he scored the eighth run on a quadruple sacrifice fly. Andy Ibanez later had a two-run single in what became a six-run inning for the Tigers.
The last Tigers pitcher to throw a “Maddux” – a shutout of fewer than 100 pitches, named after Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux – was David Price on June 12, 2015 against Cleveland.
According to STATS, Montero is the first MLB rookie to have a “Maddux” of 27 batters since pitch counts began in 1988.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
