DETROIT – Fan bases of Major League Baseball’s best teams, the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs, came together to sell out Comerica Park during the weekend series.
The Tigers and Cubs were the top two teams in the MLB with the best record before Detroit took two out of three games.
Detroit took Game 1 behind a strong performance from the Tiger King, Tarik Skubal, who went 7.2 innings pitched, giving up eight hits, one earned run, zero walks, and six strikeouts in the 3-1 victory in front of 40,132 for the third sellout at Comerica Park this season.
After Friday’s (June 6) performance, Skubal has 95 strikeouts and three walks in his last 11 starts.
He became the first pitcher to record 90+ strikeouts and three walks or fewer in an 11-start span in at least the last 125 seasons.
The Tigers got rocked as pitcher Tyler Holton gave up one hit, one run, one earned run, and one home run with zero walks in 21 pitches before getting pulled.
Keider Montero gave up five hits, four runs, four earned runs, one walk, three home runs, and four strikeouts through 69 pitches in 5.2 innings.
Chase Lee came in for one inning, giving up one hit, one run, one earned run, and one home run on 17 pitches.
John Brebbia had two strikeouts on 14 pitches, with 10 coming as strikes in the 6-1 loss.
The Tigers gave up five home runs in total, including two by Seiya Suzuki in front of a sold-out crowd of 41,334, with one-third being Cubs fans.
Chicago also got home runs from Michael Busch, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Matt Shaw.
But the Tigers bounced back on Sunday, June 8, 2025, in front of 40,343 for the third sellout of the weekend series and the fifth sellout of the season.
Sunday’s game matched the earliest such matchup since 2004. The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers faced a similar scenario on June 8, 2024, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
In the victory, Jack Flaherty struck out nine batters in over six scoreless innings to shut out the Cubs 4-0.
The battle of Major League Baseball’s first two teams with 40 or more wins drew a combined weekend total of 121,509, which was the second-highest series attendance for a three-game series since August 2014.
Detroit remains atop the majors with the best record at 43-24, boasting a 23-9 home record and a 20-15 road record while improving to 6-4 in their last 10 games.
The Tigers received some much-needed rest on Monday before Sawyer Gipson-Long takes the mound inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards vs. pitcher Cade Povich and his Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 6:35 p.m.
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