Seattle — Consider the seal broken.
The Tigers made Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki throw 41 pitches in the first inning Saturday but let him off the hook after just two runs. Seattle’s Emerson Hancock wasn’t nearly as fortunate.
The Tigers batted around against the Mariners’ right-hander Monday, scoring six first-inning runs on their way to their first win of 2025, 9-6 at T-Mobile Park.
“It was important that we just kept giving good at-bats,” said manager AJ Hinch, whose team came in with just four hits in 32 at-bats with runners in scoring position. “We’ve been really good at the beginning of games, taking game plans into the game and seeing it in action. We kept saying, if we gave ourselves enough chances we’re going to be pretty good.
“We left that other stuff in southern California and came up here with a fresh start.”
It all started with a guy who at 1:30 a.m. Monday was still back in Toledo.
Justyn-Henry Malloy, who went 2-for-4 with the Triple-A Mud Hens Sunday, thought he’d be traveling to Round Rock, Texas on Monday. Instead, he was told to get to Detroit for an 8 a.m. flight to Seattle, summoned to replace Gleyber Torres, who was put on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain.
Malloy flew across the country and, on no sleep, got to the team hotel just before the first bus was heading to the ballpark.
“When we got to the field, we let him know he was going to be active and leading off,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I don’t know what hit him the hardest, the being active part, that he was DH-ing or that he was leading off.”
All of the above.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 9, Mariners 6
Malloy stepped into the box at 6:40 p.m. Pacific time and slammed a 376-foot double to the wall in right-center and he scampered home on a broken-bat single by Kerry Carpenter. And off they went.
“It’s always good to set the tone,” said Malloy, who finished with two hits, two walks, two runs scored and an RBI. “That’s more of a team mentality than anything. The goal is always to punch first, hit them in the mouth first and we were able to do so.”
The merry-go-round was just getting rolling. Carpenter was thrown out trying to steal but Riley Greene followed with a bullet homer to left field. The ball left his bat at 110.8 mph.
Spencer Torkelson singled, Colt Keith walked and with two outs, Dillon Dingler and Trey Sweeney delivered RBI singles. Javier Báez, batting ninth, capped the outburst with a two-strike, two-run double off the fence in left.
“Just a domino effect of really good at-bats,” Malloy said. “And that’s a credit to nine guys in the lineup who are just grinding out at-bats and doing what we need to knock a starter out of the game.”
The last Tiger to have an extra-base hit and two walks in the first three innings of a game was former Tigers’ skipper Brad Ausmus back in 2000. Malloy ended up batting six times, something that caught the attention of home plate umpire Dan Iassogna.
“Yeah, the umpire said, ‘I feel like I’ve seen you so much tonight,'” Malloy said, laughing. “I was like, ‘You have.'”
The Tigers hadn’t put up a six-spot in the first inning on the road since 2008.
“J-Hen started a multitude of good at-bat after good at-bat,” Hinch said. “We had a couple fall in and some big two-out hits and (Malloy) put up a ton of really good at-bats. He earned a nice night of rest.”
Dingler finished the night with three singles, two RBI and two runs scored. He’s hitting .455 with a 1.364 OPS on the young season.
“Good to see those fall in,” he said. “Need to keep it going.”
Keith ended up two walks, a double and a single. Sweeney and Báez each had three hits.
The runs were a welcomed cushion for rookie right-hander
Jackson Jobe, who made his first big-league start
. It probably didn’t go as he might’ve dreamt it, though.
After a clean, 11-pitch first, Mariners Randy Arozarena launched his first pitch in the second inning, a center-cut 97 mph fastball, into the left-field seats.
Jobe lasted just four innings and allowed three runs. He gave up a solo homer to Luke Raley in the fourth and his pitch-count was elevated (79) by four walks.
“There was a lot of good and a lot of miss,” Hinch said. “It was a classic game of middle or miss. And the middle got hit. But he was able to control damage, which was encouraging.”
Jobe walked No. 9 hitter J.P. Crawford to leadoff the third. Crawford came in hitting .091. Victor Robles followed with a double and he scored on a ground out by Julio Rodriguez.
Báez, playing third base, made a diving stop on Rodriguez’s ball and first baseman Torkelson made a diving catch of a liner by Cal Raleigh to help Jobe limit the damage in that inning.
“I felt all right,” Jobe said. “I wish I had a couple of those pitches back. I felt like I pitched well in certain situations and there were things I could’ve done better. But we got the win. Just keep going.”
Jobe ended the fourth inning by coming back from a 3-0 count to strikeout Victor Robles, stranding a runner. Hinch stopped him at the top step of the dugout, shaking his hand to signal his night was done and then he delivering some words of encouragement, pounding him on the chest to emphasize his point.
“He’s really good,” Hinch said. “I know it was a tough night to pitch. I know he has a lot of expectations and he was coming out of the game a little earlier than he wanted. … I just wanted to give him a little encouragement. He’s going to have plenty of games where he goes a lot deeper.”
Hinch said he told Jobe that he has elite stuff and he has to use it, especially knowing the Mariners’ hitters were in ambush mode, even down six runs.
“We spot him a big league and what do we want him to do — pound the strike zone,” Hinch said. “And that’s what he did and he got nicked up a little bit. … I told him he’s going to be better for it. Arguably it’s just as hard to pitch with a lead as it is in a normal game.
“It was good to see him learn a little from tonight and we will give him the ball again in five days.”
Jobe certainly didn’t shrink from the moment. It may have been his first big-league start, but he pitched in the playoffs last season.
“He was calm, cool and collected,” Dingler said.
Jobe had to duck inside and make some throws to stay warm during the Tigers’ long first inning. And he came out razor sharp, throwing nine strikes in his first 11 pitches, striking out Raleigh with a nasty slider after beating him at the top of the zone with 97-mph heaters.
But that was his last clean inning.
“Getting that six-run lead definitely made my job easier,” Jobe said. “I tried to balance the mindset of being aggressive but still trying to make good pitches. That’s something I’m still learning. I left a couple of pitches over the plate and they took advantage of it
“I wish I could go out there and go scoreless every time out but that’s not the reality of it. So, take this start and learn from it and keep growing.”
@cmccosky
