Keider Montero roughed up in loss to Giants

He struck out none, and in, fact, only had two whiffs all game on 37 swings. What a magician. Montero allowed seven hard-hit balls, but that’s to be expected with the lack of swing-and-miss in his game. He’s had three good starts (one or fewer runs allowed) and two bad (four and five earned runs allowed) since returning to the rotation. Montero will start against the Pirates early next week.

This was nice to see after Montero had arguably his worst start of the season last time out against the Orioles. That’s especially the case considering he was pitching in Sacramento. Montero was far from dominant — he had just two strikeouts and didn’t register his first one until the sixth inning — but he threw strikes and did a good job getting ahead in the count. The 26-year-old has been a surprising success story this season with a 3.17 ERA through 18 starts and six relief appearances. He’s a recommended play in his next start against the Giants in San Francisco.

Montero has been one of the real bright spots for Detroit this season, but he didn’t have it in this one, giving up nine hits, including a solo homer to Leody Taveras. He notched only one strikeout and issued one walk. The 26-year-old was coming off a stellar performance where he struck out eight and allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings against the Cubs last week. He’ll attempt to rebound when he closes out a two-start week with a challenging road tilt against the Athletics on Sunday.

Montero showed what he was capable of in his return to the Tigers’ rotation by dicing up the Cubs here. Seiya Suzuki took him deep as the second batter of the game before Montero ripped off a stretch of retiring 14 of 15 hitters from the first through the fifth inning. He might’ve had a chance to get through the sixth too, but misplayed a dribbler from Pete Crow-Armstrong to start the frame and was taken out one batter later with just 81 pitches. Nevertheless, he forced 14 total swings-and-misses including multiple with four different pitches. He had plenty of answers against hitters from both sides of the plate, showcased great command, and looks like he will stick in the rotation moving forward with Jack Flaherty heading to the injured list and an expected sell-off in Detroit. For next week, he’s scheduled for two starts. First against the Orioles at home followed by a difficult matchup with the Athletics on the road.

The wrist was also a factor in his departure, but it’s already doing better. The Tigers are more concerned about the leg issue. Mize has already twice served IL stints due to groin problems this season. If he’s forced there again, Keider Montero could reenter the rotation.

Montero came on to relieve Troy Melton with two outs in the sixth inning and the Tigers trailing 1-0. He didn’t allow a baserunner until the ninth, where he started the inning by hitting Jorge Soler before allowing a single to Jose Siri. He battled back though, getting Jo Adell on a pop out to second and Oswald Peraza on a ground out to third before retiring Denzer Guzman on a ground ball to shortstop to end it. Montero punched out five batters in the brilliant outing and didn’t walk a batter. He’s expected to rejoin the rotation next week against the Cubs in Chicago.

It was still a 3-0 game entering the ninth, but A.J. Hinch trusted Montero over Kenley Jansen today, apparently. Montero didn’t give him any reason not to, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. He got zero strikeouts and not even a single missed swing, but none of the nine balls in play against him turned into hits. The one batter to reach against him did so by walking. Montero could be a candidate for more three-inning saves as a reliever, though it’s also quite possible he’ll return to the rotation at some point.

This was always the logical move with Jack Flaherty back in the mix. It’ll be Framber Valdez taking the ball on Thursday against the Rangers on regular rest. Montero probably deserves a spot in Detroit’s rotation based on his recent performance but it doesn’t sound like they have any plans to move to a six-man mix for now.

Montero punched out three batters on the evening while allowing only one base on balls. The only real threat against him came as the Astros put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the seventh, but Montero got Cam Smith to ground out to end the inning. The 25-year-old righty got 13 whiffs on 96 pitches on the evening, posting a strong CSW of 31 percent. He’ll look to replicate this fine effort as he carries a 3.39 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and a 56/18 K/BB ratio (87 2/3 innings) into a tough matchup against the Yankees in New York on Wednesday.

Montero tossed six scoreless innings against the White Sox on May 31, so it’s been a favorable matchup for him. Justin Verlander was originally going to return on Father’s Day, but he was scratched over the weekend due to a left hamstring injury. It remains to be seen if he’ll make it back this season. Montero will continue filling in as rotation depth in his next outing against the Astros.