Majors-best Tigers end 6-game skid with All-Star Tarik Skubal’s strong start

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — It was naturally a superb start by Tarik Skubal that resulted in a 2-1 Detroit Tigers win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night that ended a season-worst six-game losing streak for the team with the best record in the major leagues. However, Skubal didn’t get credit for the victory.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and starter in Tuesday’s All-Star Game cruised into the seventh inning with a two-hit shutout and a tenuous 1-0 lead. He left with runners at the corners and two outs, and the Rangers’ Adolis García scored on a wild pitch by Tyler Holton.

But Detroit’s Matt Vierling hit a tiebreaking single with two outs in the eighth inning, and Will Vest entered in the eighth and got four straight outs — against the top four batters in Texas’ order — for his 16th save for the Tigers (60-40).

Skubal left the park still with 10 wins (one shy of the AL lead), 164 strikeouts (one behind Boston’s Garrett Crochet) and a 2.19 ERA (tied with Crochet for the best in the American League).

“We’re the first to 60, right? That matters more (than his personal stats),” Skubal said. “We just haven’t particularly been playing our best baseball, I don’t think, for the last couple weeks. That’s just part of the season. Not from lack of effort or anything like that. But I knew I wanted to win today. I expect every time I go out there to put our team in position to win, and we were able to do that.”

Skubal struck out 11 and walked none in his seventh double-digit strikeout game this season. His final batter was a strikeout of Jonah Heim that left him at 105 pitches, three short of his career high.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Skubal “emptied his tank” on the Heim at-bat and made the pitching change to avoid overworking him.

“If we’re going anywhere (this season), we’re going with him,” Hinch said.

Two of Texas’ four hits off Skubal were by Corey Seager, the lone left-handed hitter in the starting lineup against the lefty Skubal. Seager went 2 for 3 off Skubal, improving to 8 for 12 in his career.

Skubal said he asked Seager during last year’s All-Star festivities: “Bro, how do I get you out? Can you tell me?” Seager, Skubal said, politely declined and claimed not to see the ball well when hitting against him.

“When he’s right, the stuff he does at the dish, the best in the league,” Skubal said.

Skubal is again among the best in baseball on the mound. He did his part in ending what was the majors’ longest active losing streak, even without getting a personal W.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb