Detroit — Will Vest, before he got the final six outs in dramatic fashion to secure the Tigers’ 1-0, 10th-inning victory over the Houston Astros Tuesday night, was flashing back to his early days of grinding through the fall instructional league in Lakeland.
“We got done playing catch and our pitching coordinator pulled all the pitchers into the conference room and pulled up a YouTube video,” Vest said. “It was Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens facing each other and we just sat there and watched the game. It was two of the best in the game and we watched the whole thing.
“And to think a few years from now in instructs there’s going to be guys sitting in a conference room watching this game with Hunter Brown and Tarik Skubal. It was awesome. A pitcher’s duel between two great pitchers, some of the game’s best.”
Two elite pitchers, both legitimate Cy Young Award candidates in the American League, Skubal and Brown absolutely put on a pitcher clinic at Comerica Park.
“I was telling the strength coaches, that felt like a playoff game,” said Vest, who improved to 6-2, plus his 18 saves. “I was sitting there between innings and reminiscing about last year. Like, wow, this feels like the playoffs again. These games, we’re competitors and it brings the best out of you.”
The Tigers won the game on a walk-off walk by Gleyber Torres in the bottom of the 10th. It was his 500th career RBI and one he will remember for quite a while. But even he was still buzzing about Skubal’s performance.
“Like, he’s nasty,” Torres said. “I faced him many times before and I always say, nasty. I’m glad I am playing with him. It’s really special the way he pitches. The way he commands everything when he’s on the mound. I feel like he’s in control of everything.
“Every time he’s on the mound, I feel like we’re going to win.”
Skubal allowed only three hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out 10, finishing his night retiring the last nine Astros hitters he faced, hitting 99 mph with his 94th and next to last pitch of the outing.
His last pitch was a 94-mph slider to strike out Ramon Urias, his 200th strikeout of the year. He’s the first pitcher in baseball to hit the 200-mark this season.
“It was quite a game,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Both guys were incredible. We put a ton of pressure on (Brown) and seemed like we had a ton of opportunities, which don’t come around often against him. But I’m really proud of our group for hanging in there. Tarik had to take on the Lion’s share to give us time.”
Brown, the Wayne State University product, gave up five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings. He impressively stranded Zach McKinstry after a leadoff triple in the fifth.
“I don’t even think he was at his best, just watching from my side,” Skubal said of Brown. “I’ve seen him much better and that’s a compliment to who he is. To still get six zeroes without your best stuff, that’s what separates the good pitchers from the great ones like he is.”
Skubal got a boost from his defense.
Christian Walker ambushed a first-pitch fastball in the second inning and drove it 417 feet to center. The ball would’ve landed in the shrubs had centerfielder Wenceel Perez not tracked it, timed his leap perfectly and snared the ball above the wall.
Then in the top of the fourth inning, Skubal gave up a two-out single to Yainer Diaz. Urias followed, lining a ball into the right-field corner.
Kerry Carpenter hustled to the ball and made quick, strong throw to Torres who cut the ball and fired a strike to catcher Dillon Dingler. Diaz was called out at home plate on an extremely close play.
The Astros challenged but the call was confirmed. Dingler was able to tag Diaz before his hand touched the plate.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 1, Astros 0 (10)
“Outstanding,” Skubal said. “To get out of those innings with zeroes, especially when we hadn’t put anything on the board yet, just huge plays. The relay in right field, I knew it was going to be close but I didn’t know if we had a legitimate chance at it. For them to make two great throws and for Ding to apply the tag that he did — big-time play.”
Skubal was untouchable after the fourth. Against an all right-handed lineup, he worked his four-seam fastball and sinker to both sides of the plate and got his usual swing-and-miss with his changeup (12 on 20 swings).
What was different, though, was his slider usage. He mixed in 11 of them, throwing it between 89 and 94 mph. He got three swing-and-miss punch-outs with it.
“I can pitch to my strengths and I can pitch to the guys’ weaknesses,” he said. “I thought Ding called a great game and just uniquely used that pitch in situations we thought we could best use it. It worked out good. I was great to see some positive results with that pitch. It’s not a big whiff pitch for me, so to get those results was a good thing.”
Kyle Finnegan pitched a clean eighth inning and Vest dispatched the top of the Astros’ batting order, getting Jeremy Pena to ground out and then after a single by Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve bounced into a 6-4-3 double-play.
In the 10th, Vest got a slick defensive play by Andy Ibáñez to hold the free runner at second and then Vest proceeded to end the game punching out Urias.
“What Will did, that’s not easy,” Hinch said. “Not only going through the top of their order but that runner on (in the 10th) is a stressful event from the get-go and he just continued to make pitches. We trust Will in any situation, in any part of the game against any part of the order.”
The Tigers (75-53) not only take the series over the Astros, they now hold the tiebreaker should it come into play for playoff seeding.
“The win is important,” Hinch said. “We want to win games and win series. It’s the same message. It’s boring, it’s old, it’s redundant. I am glad we have the tiebreaker right now. But we’re trying to stack as many wins as we can so hopefully the tiebreaker doesn’t matter.”
@cmccosky
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