DETROIT — The Tigers started the day comfortably with five available outfielders. By the third inning, two of them were out of the game and possibly destined for the injured list.
Bitten by a snake again.
Austin Meadows, who has been battling vertigo and was making his first start in three days, lasted one plate appearance. He fouled out to the catcher in the first inning and was removed from the game.
Victor Reyes, just activated off the injured list Sunday after spending three weeks healing a left quad strain, aggravated his right quad running out a double in his first at-bat in the second inning.
Impossible, right? With four of the starting pitchers on the injured list, too? Come on.
Fortunately for the home team, starting pitcher Tarik Skubal and resident icon Miguel Cabrera were solid as rocks. Cabrera homered and knocked in a pair of runs while Skubal keep putting up zeroes as the Tigers completed the three-game sweep of the Orioles Sunday, 5-1, at Comerica Park.
It’s the first three-game winning streak of the season for the Tigers.
Cabrera, hitting .347 in May, smoked a 93-mph fastball from Orioles starter Tyler Wells leading off the second inning and hit it 412 feet into the visitor’s bullpen in left-center. It was his second homer in three days.
In the third inning, after Javier Baez sliced a double into the corner in right field and advanced to third on a single by Willi Castro (who replaced Meadows), Cabrera lofted a sacrifice fly to center, his ninth RBI this month.
Cabrera added a single in the eighth inning and was 6 for 10 in the series with four RBIs. According to FanGraphs, since last June, Cabrera is hitting .287 with 20 doubles and 14 homers. His career homer total stands at 505 and his hit total is at 3,020, tied with Rafael Palmeiro for 29th all-time..
As for Skubal, it was another powerful performance.
He tied his career-high with 11 strikeouts and allowed only three singles in six scoreless innings. Bullying Orioles hitters with four-seam and two-seam fastballs (94 mph) and mixing in an effective blend of sliders and change-ups, he got 21 misses on 56 swings with 12 called strikes.
“Skubal has been jabbing at me every now and then about not going 100 pitches,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game. “Eduardo (Rodriguez) threw 100 pitches the other day and Skubal was the one guy that mentioned it to me.
“He wants to pitch as long as he can and I keep challenging him to be more efficient.”
Skubal threw exactly 100 pitches in his six innings Sunday.
He hasn’t allowed a run in 14 straight innings.
In three starts this month, Skubal has given up two earned runs in 19 innings, 25 strikeouts and five walks.
Harold Castro, getting a start at third base, singled in a run in the second inning, then tripled and scored in the seventh. He added an RBI single in the eighth. Catcher Tucker Barnhart had a pair of singles and an RBI.
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