In the rubber game from Cleveland, the Detroit Tigers built a surprising lead and were able to claim a ninth inning comeback from the Indians to take a 7-4 victory at home.
Tarik Skubal picked up Carlos Carrasco in his second major league start, and although he was again unable to eat innings, he showed an impressive fastball that dominated most Cleveland hitters. The offense was awakened to a full performance, with 13 hits and three home games, and ensured one of the better round wins of the season. The Tigers also finished another streak on Sunday, snapping a series with losses of seven to Cleveland that dated to September 2018.
Just like he did in his premiership debut, Skubal let a home team lead begin with his departure. Cesar Hernandez got hold of a 2-2 96 MPH fastball right off Broadway for his first homer of the season, a ball that went just over the fence in midfield. Unlike his debut, Skubal’s reaction was quite impressive. Although his pitch was high making him only 2 last 1⁄3 innings, he showed many flashes of dominance that made him the top prospect he is.
For the day, he hit five hits, gave up three hits, ran one and hit one while he could only run one. Four of his five attacks came on his fastball, which again sat at 94-95 MPH, and came on top at 97 MPH. His high fastball above the zone had the Cleveland hitters swinging out of their shoes and unable to pick it up. While he did not even command one of his off-speed pitches, he threw a few really good turn-ups and sliders, two pitches that could take him to the top of a rotation if he could find consistency with them.
Daniel Norris came back with Skubal and looked again very impressive in relief, in his 3 2⁄3 innings Norris gave up no runs when he struck out four, no one ran and allowed only two hits. Submitted to clean up a third innings jam when Skubal left, Norris locked Cleveland to escape and then put him inside to live. His fastball was again between 92-94 MPH, and sometimes ranged from 95. After struggling in recent years to increase his speed while suffering from a lingering reading injury, he put together a stretch of three straight outings, where not only is he in command of the fastball, but is also able to maintain the speed he once featured in 2016.
After just three hits on Saturday, the Tigers offense had a very nice show on Sunday afternoon. Victor Reyes led the game with a double, and then some small ball from Willi Castro moved him over to third through a sacrificial bundle. Miguel Cabrera followed with a textbook sacrifice flight to center field to record the first run of the record before Skubal took the mound. In the fourth inning, the Tigers chased Carrasco out of the game with two home points courtesy of Niko Goodrum and Jorge Bonifacio, his first goal for the Tigers, to take a 4-1 lead.
The Tigers got some runs from an unlikely source in the sixth inning, with Grayson Greiner delivering fans in the Detroit area curling fries by hitting the team’s third home run of the day, an absolute cannon shot from the bat to deep left field. At 112.1 MPH, it was the hardest hit ball of Greiner’s career.
However, they were not finished with the inning as Cabrera added his second RBI of the game, a single to the right field that gave the Tigers a 6-1 lead. With his sixth inning RBI, Cabrera tied Adrian Beltré for the 21st in MLB history with 1,707 career interviews inside. Given his long and legendary career, every hit by Cabrera now seems to mean he has reached another milestone.
In the eighth inning, Castro added his second hit of the day, an RBI single on a base ball to left field that put the Tigers 7-1. It was a good day for quite a few Tigers on the plate, especially the young Isaac Paredes who went 3-4 with a double. Every single starter for the Tigers had at least one hit.
Despite not being a close game for most of the afternoon, the back end of the ball got some work done. By taking a rough stretch, Gregory Soto took the seventh inning and was back to his dominant ways, going one-two-three on 9 pitches with a strikeout. Buck Farmer was equally good, sitting Cleveland in order with a strikeout.
For an afternoon with very little drama, Joe Jimenez did his best to inject as much as possible into the third of an inning he gave up. In the ninth, Jimenez ran the first two fights he faced and then handed a three-run homer to Greg Allen, a player with a handball average of .143 and no home games on the season. Jimenez insists he has no case protecting leads, let alone closing bad ball games. Fortunately, Ron Gardenhire was not to be rumored and brought in Jose Cisnero to close the door and seal the victory.
Monday night, the Tigers begin a series against the Cubs at Comerica Park at 7 a.m. Casey Mize (0-0, 6.23 ERA) will begin his second major class by taking on Alec Mills (2-2, 4.76 ERA).
