The Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants got a three-game series started on Monday afternoon in Detroit, and Keider Montero got the start for the Tigers. Montero has had some rough outings so far this year, and his last two were a couple of his worst. Montero needed a good start on Monday, and that's exactly what he did. He lasted five innings and gave up zero runs and just one hit while striking out three and walking two. The Tigers went on to win the game 3-1.

If the Tigers can get Keider Montero to give them five innings anywhere close to that on a consistent basis, that would be massive.

“Five scoreless,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said after the game, according to an article from MLB.com. “If you had told me at the beginning of the day [that would happen], I would have loved it.”

A big thing that helped Montero in this game was his slider. When he has command of that pitch, it makes his life a lot easier.

“I had a lot of command of my slider today,” Montero said, “and I did what I wanted with it.”

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In a lot of games this season that Montero has started, the Tigers have had to go to the bullpen early. That wasn't the case on Monday, and it certainly made things easier on the team. The Giants were able to get on the board after Montero left the game, but the Tigers found a way to get the win.

“When we have a lead at the time, we’re going into a little bit of a bullpen game toward the back end of the game anyway,” Hinch added. “So getting Holton hot was an easy decision based on how our path was to go get it. It obviously didn’t go perfectly from the sixth inning on, but our guys did a good job of chipping away at outs and coming up with big outs.”

The Tigers improved to 35-20 after the victory. After dropping three straight against the Cleveland Guardians, Detroit was in an unfamiliar spot. This team has been incredibly hot all year long, so losing three in a row isn't something that everyone is used to. Well, the Tigers stopped the slide quickly as they have now won two in a row, and that is a sign of an elite team.

Detroit and San Francisco will battle it out in Game 2 of their series on Tuesday night. The Tigers and Giants will get underway at 6:40 ET from Comerica Park in Detroit.