DETROIT -- No strikeouts? No problem. No runs.
The last time a Major League team tossed a shutout without striking out a batter, then-Tigers sinkerballer Rick Porcello did it all by himself with a 95-pitch four-hitter against the A’s. That was on July 1, 2014, when Porcello was an overshadowed part of a Detroit rotation that included Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Aníbal Sánchez, and two years before Porcello won a Cy Young Award in Boston.
"I would've liked to record one strikeout," Porcello said at the time, "but I'll take the game that I had tonight over anything."
As Keider Montero delivered 6 1/3 scoreless innings in Thursday’s 3-0 win over the Guardians at Comerica Park, it was hard not to get the same sense.
“I don’t know if the plan was to let them all put the ball in play. We would like a punchout or two,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “But [Montero] doesn’t really get bothered by how he gets his outs.”
It was neither glamorous nor overpowering, and like Porcello’s gem, it probably won’t be remembered alongside some of his teammates’ top outings this season. But for a pitcher who has adapted from fill-in starter to bulk reliever to part-time closer and back again to the rotation, it was a fitting Montero outing.
“My mentality was what I always have: to go out and do my job, do my best to give this team a chance to win,” Montero said through translation from Tigers director of Spanish communications Carlos Guillén. “I also trust in my teammates and in the staff. I know they have my back."
And it was clutch. By holding down a Cleveland offense that earned a reputation for tough at-bats over the years and handing a lead to the bullpen, Montero helped the Tigers move into the third AL Wild Card spot, at least temporarily pending results from the Rangers and Twins game late Thursday night.
The Tigers overcame a miserable May to work back into the postseason picture with a 38-23 record since June 1, second in the AL to the Red Sox. Some of those wins have been by brute force of a revived offense that has scored in double digits eight times in that span. Detroit has also won on the stinginess of a pitching staff that has recorded six shutouts in its past 14 games, the first such stretch in team history.
Sunday was neither dazzling nor dizzying; it was beauty in pragmatism. Montero took a team with a below-average strikeout rate but also a below-average hard-hit rate and used contact against it. Remember, this is the same Montero who shut out the Rockies two years ago -- albeit with five strikeouts -- during the Tigers’ September charge to a Wild Card berth.
The Guardians swung at 37 of Montero’s 51 strikes over 88 pitches. Just two of those swings failed to connect: Chase DeLauter whiffed on a slider before his first-inning single, and Austin Hedges chased a 2-0 fastball up and out of the zone in the third inning. Everything else was either fouled off or in play.
"That’s kind of how he is. We knew what his profile was,” Cleveland leadoff hitter Steven Kwan said. “He was landing a bunch of offspeed for strikes, getting ahead. He's always kind of done pretty well against us, so clearly, we haven't figured him out just yet."
Montero threw first-pitch strikes to 12 of 23 batters, but he faced just six three-ball counts -- his first two batters, and then four of his last five.
The right-hander allowed just three singles -- two from DeLauter -- and a José Ramírez walk while recording nine groundouts.
Even when the Guardians found open grass for base hits, the Tigers' defense stepped up. Right fielder Ben Malgeri, who made a running catch on Ramírez in the right-field corner behind Kenley Jansen in the ninth, cut off Brayan Rocchio's third-inning gapper to prevent extra bases.
“I'm very proud for what happened today,” Montero said. “For what I did, and also for what we were able to do as a collective.”
Montero became the first MLB pitcher to toss six or more scoreless innings with no strikeouts and two or fewer swing-and-misses since then-Phillie Alec Asher blanked the Nationals on Sept. 8, 2016, and the first Tiger since Porcello in his aforementioned shutout. Even without whiffs as a consideration, Montero became just the fifth Major League hurler in the past 10 years to toss six or more scoreless innings without a strikeout.
“Maybe a stat line that doesn't spit out perfect things about strikeouts per nine innings pitched and things like that,” Hinch said, “but it produces a winner. Which would you rather have?”