Tigers steamroll Rockies to complete doubleheader sweep

Colt Keith homered among his two hits, Brewer Hicklen had his first two major league hits and the Detroit Tigers beat the Colorado Rockies 11-1 in Denver to sweep their doubleheader on Thursday.

Keider Montero pitched eight strong innings, Spencer Torkelson had three hits, and Kerry Carpenter and Trey Sweeney had two hits apiece to help Detroit to its fourth straight win.

The Tigers finished 7-3 on their 10-game, three-city road trip, their longest of the season. Detroit won the opener 10-2.

Montero, added to the roster for the doubleheader, scattered five hits in allowing just the one run for his second win over the Rockies. Montero (1-1) threw a shutout against them on Sept, 10, 2024, for his only complete game.

Mickey Moniak had two hits for Colorado, which has lost six in a row and fell to 6-31, the worst record in the majors.

Tanner Gordon, called up to start the second game, allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings in his first start of the season for Colorado.

The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Owen Miller's groundout but Detroit responded in the third against Gordon (0-1).

Dillon Dingler, Sweeney and Hicklen led off with singles to load the bases against Gordon. Carpenter hit a grounder to third that went through the webbing of Ryan McMahon's glove, allowing a run to score.

Gleyber Torres followed with a three-run double into the right-center field gap to make it 4-1. Gordon retired the next two batters but Torkelson doubled home Torres and scored on Jace Jung's single.

Colorado threatened in the bottom of the inning when it loaded the bases with one out. But Michael Toglia topped a ball right in front of home, Dingler picked it up, stepped on the plate and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.

Keith hit a two-run homer off Tyler Kinley in the seventh and Justyn-Henry Malloy had a pinch-hit, three-run double in the eighth for Detroit.