Arlington, Texas – For all the verbal despair and Chicken Little musings on talk radio and social media platforms during this six-game losing streak, the Tigers Sunday night, before a national audience via ESPN, still became the first team in baseball to reach 60 wins.
Crisis averted?
“Everyone has done an exceptional job of keeping the noise out and just focusing on ourselves,” said Matt Vierling, who delivered a two-out, two-strike RBI single in the top of the eighth, sending the Tigers to a skid-busting 2-1 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field. “Going through a streak like we did, that’s the most important thing. Just stay in the clubhouse and focus on ourselves and what we’ve been good at all year.”
Vierling’s knock came after the Tigers had surrendered the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on a two-out, two-strike wild pitch. And, it came as the Tigers were on the verge of squandering a two-on, nobody-out opportunity in the eighth.
Rangers reliever Chris Martin struck out Spencer Torkelson and got Wenceel Perez on a foul popup before Vierling lashed a single to center.
“I was really glad I could pick up those guys in front of me,” Vierling said. “And Skub pitched his ass off. It was good that we could reward him with a win. That was really good for us.”
The Tigers absolutely jumped on the back of their two-time All Star and reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and held on for six-plus innings.
“We’ve been on the wrong side of some games lately,” said Skubal, who finished with 11 strikeouts and protected a 1-0 lead through six innings. “We just haven’t been particularly playing our best baseball for the last couple of weeks and that’s just part of it. That’s part of the season. It’s not been for a lack of effort or anything like that.
“But I know I wanted to win today and I expect every time I go out there to put our team in a position to win and we were able to do that.”
Going into the seventh, he’d allowed just two hits, both to his nemesis Corey Seager. But with one out, Adolis Garcia, who he’d struck out twice, lined a double into the left field corner, one of the few mislocated changeups Skubal threw. Kyle Higoshioka followed with single to center, advancing Garcia to third.
Skubal’s pitch-count was climbing over 100 and manager AJ Hinch was staring at a hard decision with switch-hitting Jonah Heim stepping in.
“It was tough,” Hinch said. “As I told him on the mound, If we’re going anywhere, we’re going with him. I wanted to give him the Heim at-bat and maybe even the at-bat behind him. But he really emptied his tank when he punched him out.”
Skubal bowed his neck and won an eight-pitch fight with Heim, finally striking him out with a changeup. That was his 11th strikeout and his 105th pitch. The second most pitches he’d ever thrown in a game in his career.
“You get a little fatigued as the game goes on,” Skubal said. “And I think the two-strike execution is where the fatigue showed tonight late in the game. Even in the sixth, I didn’t execute great with two strikes. Then in the seventh I left that changeup up to Adolis.
“You have to figure out a way to get an out there to end the inning. I was trying to get a double-play ball to end the inning, but to strike him out and turn it over to the bullpen is another good option.”
It was and it wasn’t.
Lefty Tyler Holton was summoned. He got two strikes on rookie Cody Freeman. But he bounced a 1-2 curveball that caromed off catcher Dillon Dingler’s chest protector far enough to allow Garcia to scamper home with the tying run.
“I knew there was a chance that ball was going to be in the dirt and I was trying to be ready for it,” said Dingler, who ranks in the top 95th percentile in baseball in blocking. “It kicked up a little further than I thought it would. It needs to be blocked. I knew it was coming. I get it, it’s a tough one. But it needed to be blocked.”
Agonizing.
Holton, though, didn’t buckle. He retired Freeman to end the seventh and struck out the first two hitters in the eighth before handing the baton to Will Vest.
Vest turned the baton into a sword. He came in hot, throwing three straight 97.8-mph heaters to strike out Wyatt Langford to end the eighth and went through the heart of the Texas order on six pitches in the ninth to earn his 16th save.
“I thought he deserved to be an All Star, that’s the caliber of player he is,” Skubal said. “I love him coming in and shutting games down. I think he’s pretty good at it.”
Vest got Seager and Marcus Semien on one pitch each and then struck out Garcia on four pitches.
“What was it, their top four hitters in nine pitches,” Dingler said. “Yeah, that’s pretty good.”
The offense never got untracked in Texas. Even on a night when the Rangers had to scratch their ace, Nathan Eovaldi, because of back soreness. The Tigers did very little damage against rookie lefty Jacob Latz.
One run. It came in the third on singles by Wenceel Perez, Dingler and Zach McKinstry. It was the first lead of the series and the back-to-back hits by Dingler and McKinstry were the first by the Tigers in an inning since the third inning last Sunday against the Mariners.
“Wins have been hard to come by in the last week,” Hinch said. “But we’ve been doing well for the better part of four months so I know this team has a lot of confidence…We had some good swings today. It’s 2-1, but we’ll take whatever we can get.”
Skubal set the tone right out of the gate, striking out four in the first two innings, throwing 21 strikes in his first 29 pitches and getting seven whiffs on 15 swings. He took it up another in the third, striking out the side, putting together a run of seven punch-outs in eight hitters.
The Rangers whiffed on 20 of their 59 swings. The average exit velocity on the 13 balls in play was 85.9 mph.
The only Rangers hitter immune to his power was lefty Seager. He doubled in the first and singled in the fourth, giving him eight hits in 11 at-bats at that point against Skubal in his career.
Skubal got another shot at him in the sixth and got him to line out to second on a first-pitch changeup. Skubal threw his arms in the air in mock triumph.
Asked if he had some fun with Seager, Skubal said, “I think he had some fun with me, to be honest (laughing). Last year at the All-Star Game we had some conversations and I was like, ‘Bro, how do I get you out? Can you tell me?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t see it well when you pitch.’ And I go, ‘Bull(crap).’
“He’s a good dude and one of the best in the game.”
Skubal is, too. The Tigers are now 15-5 when he starts and he lowered his ERA to 2.19. In 20 starts he’s amassed 164 strikeouts and 16 walks. Since 1901, only two pitchers have amassed those numbers in 20 games — Clayton Kershaw and Skubal.
“What matters is winning ballgames,” he said. “That’s the most important thing in this game. We got to 60 wins first, right? That matters more than anything I’m doing individually.”
Javier Baez was removed from the game in the third inning. He had struck out in his two at-bats.
“He came in the dugout and just said he didn’t feel right,” Hinch said. “I asked him what was going on and he kept saying he didn’t feel right. But he’s fine. He was the first in line for the high-five line after the game. It’s just something was off and we got him out of the game.”
@cmccosky