Tarik Skubal delivered a masterful performance, striking out a season-high 10 batters over six innings to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Boston. The win halted Detroit's nine-game road losing streak. Skubal's effort lowered his ERA to 2.08.
In Boston on Saturday, Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was nearly perfect through four innings against the Red Sox, allowing his first baserunner on a leadoff walk in the fourth before striking out the next three batters. He finished with 10 strikeouts, including four straight at one point and the side in the second inning. Boston broke through in the fifth with a single, double and walk to load the bases, but Skubal induced a double play and flyout to limit the damage to one run. He navigated a two-hit sixth before exiting after six innings, having thrown nine first-pitch strikes to his first 13 batters faced and generating 12 swinging strikes on 15 changeups. His ERA dropped from 2.22 to 2.08 with the outing, marking his fourth start this season of at least six innings while allowing six hits or fewer and one earned run or less. He improved to 3-2 with 33 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings, tying for sixth in the majors. “The best pitcher in baseball,” third baseman Kevin McGonigle said of Skubal. Manager A.J. Hinch noted, “He had to pitch to a couple of innings of stress on his own.” Skubal acknowledged areas for improvement: “The fifth was kind of self-inflicted with the four-pitch walk... I’ve got to do better later in games.” Detroit's offense supported him early, with Kerry Carpenter drawing a bases-loaded walk in the first and hitting a solo home run—his fourth of the season—in a three-run fourth against Red Sox starter Brayan Bello. McGonigle went 2-for-5 with a run and RBI, saying, “We did a really good job taking the tough pitches in the first inning just making [Bello] come to the heart of the plate.” Hinch praised the at-bats: “It was a well-played game all around.”
