DETROIT — All good things must come to an end.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, that applies to starting pitcher Tarik Skubal’s scoreless streak and the team’s promising offensive start against the Guardians on Thursday night. That’s the bad news.
The good news is Skubal was able to shake off his one rough inning and Detroit’s bats were able to come through in the clutch, as Miguel Cabrera delivered a walk-off single and the Tigers kicked off a nine-game homestand at Comerica Park with a 4-3 win.
After cruising through the first two innings and extending his scoreless run to 21 innings – the longest by a starting pitcher this season – Skubal saw that streak and early 3-0 lead get wiped out. Back-to-back hits by Oscar Mercado (single) and Luke Maile (double) promptly ended Skubal’s streak and marked the first run he’s allowed in his last four starts.
Four batters later – with runners on second and third with two outs – Skubal got ahead of Owen Miller 0-2 in the count, getting him to swing at a knuckle curve at the bottom of the zone. Skubal went back to the same pitch but this time Miller connected and roped a two-run single to left center to tie it up.
Skubal buckled down and dialed back in from that point on, allowing just one baserunner – on an infield single – over the next four innings. He gave up five hits and struck out five over seven innings, retiring eight Guardians in a row to end his night.
“It’s nice to have him back on the mound,” manager AJ Hinch said of Skubal, who exited his last start at Cleveland when he was drilled in the left shin by a line drive. “Anytime he pitches, we feel like we have a chance to win.
“It's pretty nice to have a big boy like him healthy and ready to go.”
Jason Foley tossed a scoreless eighth and Gregory Soto pitched around a one-out double to keep it tied in the ninth, setting the stage for Cabrera’s heroics. Jonathan Schoop hit a one-out double and then after advancing to third on wild pitch, Cabrera stroked a single to right-center to end it.
While the Tigers have struggled to put much pressure on opposing pitchers, they bucked the trend early on against Konnor Pilkington, who was making his fifth MLB appearance and second start this season for the Guardians.
The Tigers made Pilkington work from the start and needed just four batters to plate a run. After Robbie Grossman reached on an infield single and moved to second on a walk by Cabrera, he scored on single to right by Javier Báez.
Pilkington was able to avoid further damage by getting out of a bases-loaded jam to end the first. The Tigers made up for the missed opportunity the next inning as they pushed across two more runs, with Derek Hill scoring on a sacrifice fly by Schoop and Grossman scoring on a two-out, opposite-field single by Cabrera.
But after mustering five hits and three runs over the first two innings, the Tigers produced just two more base knocks – a single by Daz Cameron in the third and a bloop single by Cabrera in the fourth – over the next six innings and squandered a prime scoring chance in the fourth. With the bases loaded with one out, they came up empty when Báez struck out swinging on a slider in the dirt and Jeimer Candelario flied out to left.
