DETROIT — Given all the hustle and bustle leading up to it, the game itself was refreshingly tranquil.

Credit rookie Troy Melton for that.

On a day right-handed starter Reese Olson (shoulder) was lost for the rest of the season and veteran Chris Paddack was acquired in a trade from the Twins, Melton, calmly and cooly blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks for seven innings Monday night and the Detroit Tigers took the opener of the three-game series 5-1 at Comerica Park.

It was Melton’s second big-league start and his first at Comerica, but you’d never have known it by his mound presence. Poised and polished. Mixing sliders, cutters and splitters off 97-mph four-seamers to the six left-handed hitters in the Arizona lineup, he scattered five singles and struck out five with no walks.

His efficiency was beyond his years. He got through his seven innings in 87 pitches, 61 strikes. The Diamondbacks never had multiple runners against him in any inning.

He left to a standing ovation from the crowd behind the Tigers’ dugout and got both a handshake and a hug from manager AJ Hinch.

Before the game also, came news that center fielder Parker Meadows was placed on the injured list with a quad strain. That was countered by the return of lefty-slayer Andy Ibanez from Triple-A Toledo.

Good timing.

Against former Tigers lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, Ibanez got the offense started with a double in the second inning, scoring on a single by Dillon Dingler. Then he led off the fourth with a line drive homer to left.

Dingler ended up with three hits. He singled and scored on a Matt Vierling double in the fourth inning and then whacked his ninth homer of the season in the sixth.

The Diamondbacks got on the board in the eighth, a solo homer by Alek Thomas off reliever Tommy Kahnle.

The Tigers (62-46) won back-to-back games for the first time since July 7-8 against Tampa.

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