Kameron Goodwill
 | Special to The Detroit News
Unlike their previous contest, the Tigers held on to a big lead this time, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 7-5 in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.
Evening up this series that’s pitting two of the best teams in the MLB after both made moves in the trade deadline for a championship push, Detroit needed to make a statement after Friday night’s loss and it did.
Tarik Skubal finished with 10 strikeouts, giving up three runs on five hits with no walks in seven innings, and showed no rust after taking a game off for the birth of his child.
Skubal cruised through the first six innings, giving up two hits and at one point retiring 13 straight batters. He needed help for the last out in the the sixth, as Riley Greene slid in foul territory to retire Kyle Schwarber.
The way Skubal pitches every outing is starting to seem like a routine. Everyone knows how deadly the fastball he struck out six batters with Saturday is, and how that sets up his nasty change-up. And there’s that control with his pitches, showing that if you want to get on base with Skubal on the mound, the ball has to either be in-play or out into the stands.
“I thought Tarik was really, really good. I mean, they got him at the end, it happened fast with three hitters, but we swung the bats really well. We played pretty good defense and played a complete game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said in postgame interviews.
Even with Skubal’s outing, the Tigers needed offense to beat this Phillies team, which has already shown in this series that it will not give up just like Friday when it rallied from being down 3-0 to defeat Detroit 5-4. And they would have to do it against Zack Wheeler, who finished second in NL Cy Young voting last season.
The Tigers bats got to Wheeler early, as Colt Keith and Kerry Carpenter hit solo homers in the third inning to build a 2-0 lead. Keith went 3-for-5, joining Wenceel Perez as the two Tigers with three hits.
Javier Báez also did damage against Wheeler, going 2-for-4 with a 2-run homer in the top of the seventh, then adding a 2-run triple in the eighth. Overall, the Tigers put up 12 hits with their seven runs and four homers.
“When you get the majority of your lineup giving you something during the day, you get a game like this, where you’re in control,” Hinch said.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 7, Phillies 5
Detroit was in cruise control until the bottom of the seventh, when Skubal gave up three runs. J.T. Realmuto brought Bryce Harper home with a double, then Nick Castellanos hit his 15th homer to make it 5-3 with no outs. Skubal bounced back, retiring the next three Phillies hitters in his final inning.
Both teams put up two runs in the eighth, but the Tigers shut out the Phillies in the ninth to secure the victory and tie the series at 1-1.
It was Kyle Finnegan who came up for the save in his first appearance as a Tiger since being traded from the Washington Nationals on Thursday. He retired all four batters he faced with a strikeout, showing early signs of why he’s seen as positive addition to the Tigers bullpen.
The deciding game of the series will take place Sunday night in primetime on ESPN.
Kameron Goodwill is a freelance writer.
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