PITTSBURGH — Turns out it was worth the wait for the Tigers.
After a two-hour, five-minute rain delay Tuesday night, they KO’d veteran lefty Jose Quintana in the fourth inning and held on for a 5-3 win over the Pirates at PNC Park.
Clearly, the Tigers kept the bats warm and dry during the delay because they came out hitting rockets.
Javier Báez, who had hits in his first two at-bats, smoked a double into the corner in left in the second inning, the ball leaving his bat with an exit velocity of 112 mph. Statcast registered that as the hardest-hit ball by a Tiger hitter this season.
Jonathan Schoop drove an RBI double 360 feet into the gap in left-center in the third inning. Those were just the appetizers.
In a three-run fourth, Báez lined a single with an exit velocity of 96 mph. Spencer Torkelson followed, hitting a 402-foot line drive, exit velocity of 109 mph, that was still sizzling when it hit the top of the wall in center — RBI double.
Daz Cameron singled to right field (105 mph) and Tucker Barnhart walked. Pirates manager Derek Shelton let Quintana face one more hitter, left-handed hitting Harold Castro.
Castro lined a two-run single to center, exit velocity of 103 mph.
The 4-1 lead seemed pretty secure with Tarik Skubal and his 2.15 ERA on the mound. But this wasn’t in any way a normal night for him.
A fickle line of storms that cut through the area Tuesday night did more than delay the start of the game. The storms caused Tigers manager AJ Hinch to change his starting pitcher twice.
The teams were told the rain would come between 7:30 and 8 p.m. So, the initial plan was to start the game on time, at 7:10 p.m., and go until the rain hit.
Hinch, at that point, decided to pull Skubal. No sense in burning his No. 1 starter for maybe three innings. Instead he tabbed ever-ready Wily Peralta to make the start, pushing Skubal to Wednesday.
A few minutes later, it was announced the game would be delayed from the start, completely nullifying Hinch’s reason for pulling Skubal. The rains didn’t hit for another 20 minutes after that and as the delay lingered and the storm gradually moved east, there was no reason for Hinch to pull Skubal, so he reinstated him.
Besides playing absolute havoc with betting lines across the country, no harm no foul.
Skubal ultimately didn’t show any ill effects. He struck out nine and walked none in his seven innings of work. He got 19 swings and misses, nine with his change-up on 10 swings. He also got 13 called strikes.
The only real mistake he made was a mislocated slider to left-handed hitter Cal Mitchell with a runner on and two outs in the fourth. Mitchell deposited it 405 feet deep into the right-field seats. It was the third home run allowed by Skubal this season and the first two a left-handed hitter.
In fact, it was just the second home run by a lefty against Skubal in 244 innings. Seattle’s Kyle Seager had the other one.
The Tigers accepted a gift run from the Pirates in the top of the eighth inning. Cameron was on first with two outs. He'd hit a ground ball up the middle that was fielded behind second base. Torkelson got caught too far off the bag and was tagged out.
Barnhart followed with a sinking liner to right. Mitchell dived for it and missed. Cameron came all the way around to score. It was an aggressive send by third base coach Ramon Santiago, and had the throw to the plate from second baseman Yu Chang been on line, Cameron would've been out.
The throw, though, was way up the third-base line.
Alex Lange pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Gregory Soto closed it out for his 11th save.
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