Parker Meadows hit a home run and drove in two runs, while Keider Montero pitched six strong innings, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.
Montero (2-5), making his eighth career start, gave up just four hits, including a solo homer by Luke Raley in the fifth inning.
Meadows put the Tigers ahead first with an RBI single against Mariners starter Luis Castillo in the fourth inning. Detroit then added two more runs in the fifth inning with RBI singles from Colt Keith and Wenceel Pérez, making the score 3-0.
In the eighth inning, Meadows hit a 415-foot home run off Trent Thornton to extend the Tigers’ lead to 4-1. Meadows has had two hits in each of his two games since returning from nearly a month on the injured list, including a triple and a home run.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, “I think the biggest part of that, obviously, he’s getting better pitches to hit.
His bats have been really good, his outs have been competitive, his damage is noteworthy tonight, … his rehab was good and his reintroduction back to this level has been very fun to see.”
Raley hit a home run in the fifth inning to pull Seattle within two runs. Seattle added another run in the ninth inning when Jorge Polanco’s flyball fell between Pérez and Meadows in right-center field for an RBI single.
Castillo (9-11) pitched six innings, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and striking out nine. Montero struck out a career-high eight batters and walked one.
“One of the things I’ve been doing is to calm myself down, put the emotions down on the mound,” Montero said through translator Carlos Guillén.
“I’m not very fond of the hitters taking the rhythm towards me, because I like to impose my rhythm on the mound. It’s one of the things, I’ve been working on it, and we’re getting progress on it. I’m very proud of what we’re doing so far.”
