Jobe deals in deepest start of career for sweep of Rockies

DETROIT -- A day after the Tigers rallied to victory with a seven-run eighth inning, Jackson Jobe ensured there would be no comeback needed on Sunday, tossing 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball with a career-high eight strikeouts as the Tigers rolled to an 8-1 win over the Rockies at Comerica Park.

The Tigers’ fourth straight win completed a three-game series sweep of Colorado and a 5-1 homestand. Detroit outscored Colorado by a 25-10 margin over three games. On Sunday, to use a football term, they dominated time of possession.

After taxing the Rockies for 194 pitches over eight innings Saturday, the Tigers worked Colorado starter Gabriel Hughes for 70 pitches over two innings Sunday. Riley Greene’s 20th home run of the year, an opposite-field two-run loft off a curveball, put the Tigers up for good in the opening inning before a 40-pitch, three-run second put Detroit in total control. Zach McKinstry and Colt Keith both battled for extended at-bats and walks, but the crushing blow was Kevin McGonigle’s eight-pitch at-bat, culminating in a drive off the top of the fence in right-center for a two-run triple.

By contrast to Hughes, Jobe didn’t cross the 70-pitch mark until his sixth inning, recovering nicely from Adael Amador’s first-inning solo homer to not allow another runner into scoring position. The Rockies loaded their lineup with lefties, challenging Jobe to change speeds. Instead, Jobe flummoxed Colorado hitters with breaking balls, including five whiffs on eight swings against his slider and six whiffs in nine swings against his curveball.

Even with the Tigers watching his workload in his seventh start back from 2025 Tommy John surgery, Jobe worked into the seventh inning for the first time in his Major League career. He gave up a leadoff single to TJ Rumfield, but fanned Mickey Moniak on a 96.2 mph sinker for his new career high in K’s on his 87th and final pitch. He left to a standing ovation and in line for his first victory since his season debut on Aug. 8.

Colorado’s only hit in between Amador’s homer and Rumfield’s single was a Vimael Machín ground-ball single through the right side with two outs in the second. Catcher Dillon Dingler picked him off two pitches later.

Greene added a third RBI to his ledger with a two-out single in a two-run fourth inning, set up by three consecutive walks off Rockies reliever Zach Agnos. Spencer Torkelson added his 23rd home run of the season, a fifth-inning solo homer off Nick Frasso.