Tarik Skubal showed no lingering signs of injury in his first start since exiting his outing Saturday due to discomfort in his rib cage. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner — and frontrunner for this year’s honors — allowed one run and seven hits over six innings versus the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday at Comerica Park.
Unfortunately for the Detroit Tigers, the lineup couldn’t provide Skubal much run support in a 3-1 loss to the Guardians. With the defeat, Detroit’s lead over Cleveland in the AL Central is down to 3.5 games with nine games remaining on the regular-season schedule. The two teams play again in a three-game series next week at Progressive Field.
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With the loss, the Tigers (85-68) were swept in three games by the Guardians (81-71) in Detroit and have lost six of their past seven games. Detroit now faces the possibility of losing its division lead and settling for making the postseason as a wild card after being one of the best teams in MLB for most of the season.
Skubal did his part to try to end the Tigers’ losing skid, striking out nine batters. That gave him a career-high 233 strikeouts for the season, topping the 228 he compiled last year. Any concerns that he or the team might’ve had after his rib cage issue were likely settled with him throwing 102 pitches on Thursday.
Skubal’s lone run allowed was a home run by Jhonkensy Noel in the fourth inning that tied the score 1-1. Noel reached low and just outside the strike zone for a 91 mph changeup — Skubal’s best pitch — and launched the ball over the left-field fence.
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Cleveland threatened to take the lead in the sixth on a two-out triple by Brayan Rocchio that outfielder Wenceel Pérez couldn’t quite reach down the right-field line. But after walking Austin Hedges, Skubal struck out Nolan Jones to keep the Guardians off the board.
Troy Melton couldn’t do the same for the Tigers after he relieved Skubal in the seventh. Following a one-out walk to Angel MartÃnez, he left a cutter in the low middle of the strike zone to José RamÃrez, who lifted it over the right-field wall for a two-run homer.
From there, the Tigers couldn’t score against Cleveland relievers Tim Herrin, Kolby Allard and Hunter Gaddis, despite drawing two walks and a single by Spencer Torkelson. Starter Tanner Bibee matched Skubal for six innings, allowing one run and four hits with eight strikeouts.
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The Guardians have won seven consecutive games and 15 of their past 17, whittling a 10.5-game deficit in the AL Central to 3.5 games.
“It was a rough day. We had Tarik on the mound, and he really had to battle,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said after the game. “They did a good job of working him through a lot of tough innings. He finished about as strong as you could finish. … On the big picture, it’s very disappointing.”
Skubal is scheduled to face the Guardians again Tuesday. The left-hander has an 0.40 ERA (one earned run in 22 innings) this season versus Cleveland.
Up next for the Tigers is a three-game home set with the Atlanta Braves (70-83) before next week’s showdown in Cleveland. The Guardians travel to Minnesota (66-86) for a four-game series versus the Twins this weekend before returning home.