(AP) — Rookie Keider Montero pitched Detroit's first individual shutout in three seasons and the Tigers beat the Colorado Rockies 11-0 Tuesday night.
Montero (5-6) was making 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 year and 66 days, Montero is the third-youngest Tigers pitcher with a shutout in the last 20 seasons, older than only 5/22/06 Justin Verlander, who pitched a shutout at 23 years, 91 days in May 2006, and 8/14/16 Michael Fulmer, whose shutout came at 23 years and 152 days in Aug. 2016.
“I was just trying to put every pitch in the strike zone and (catcher Jake Rogers) called a great game,” Montero said through a translator. “Regardless of the score, I was attacking hitters. I knew I had the guys behind me who would make the plays.”
The right-hander, who recorded the 16th complete-game shutout of the season, needed 96 pitchers while facing the minimum 27 batters. He allowed three singles and struck out five without walking a batter.
“Obviously, this is a huge night for Keider and a huge night for us,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
Montero expected to pitch to Dillon Dingler, who has caught him regularly in Triple-A Toledo and Detroit, but a late lineup change meant he was working with Rogers for only the second time this season.
“We ambushed him with a new catcher about 90 minutes before the game, which isn'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 by the Tigers' infield.
“He's just got a really solid four-pitch mix — a lively fastball, two different breaking balls and a good changeup — and he throws a ton 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 if you change speeds, move the ball on both sides of the plate and keep it down.”
Parker Meadows hit a solo homer in the first inning, his seventh, and drove in three runs.
Rockies starter Bradley Blalock (1-3) allowed five runs on 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 80-plus pitches in four innings. You've got to get the ball in the strike zone.”
Colorado pitchers retired the final 23 batters in Sunday's 4-1 win in Milwaukee, but that streak ended when Meadows hit Blalock's second pitch into the right-field stands. It was the first time Meadows and Blalock — high school teammates at Grayson High School in Georgia — had faced each other in the majors.
The Tigers loaded the bases in the second on two walks and an error, and Riley Greene tripled into the right-field corner to make it 4-0. Matt Vierling followed with an RBI single to put Detroit up by five.
Meadows had a two-run single off Anthony Molina in the sixth, making it 7-0, and he scored the eighth run on Vierling's sacrifice fly. Andy Ibáñez had a two-run single later in what became a six-run inning for the Tigers.
The last Tigers pitcher to achieve a “Maddux” - a shutout in fewer than 100 pitches named after Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux — was David Price against Cleveland on June 12, 2015.
According to STATS, Montero is the first MLB rookie to have a 27-batter “Maddux” since it began tracking pitch counts in 1988.
UP NEXT
The teams continue the three-game series on Wednesday. RHP Casey Mize (2-6, 4.30 ERA) gets the start for Detroit. Colorado has not named a starter.
