Salvador Perez had three hits, including a home run, and the Kansas City Royals won their fifth game in a row by beating Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers 9-2 on Friday night.
Cole Ragans (8-7) limited the Tigers to two runs on two hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out six.
Skubal (12-4) gave up a season-high five runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings. Despite striking out eight, Skubal has a 2-9 record against the Royals with a 5.05 ERA in 14 games, including 12 starts.
“They don’t have a lot of swing and misses over there, and if you chase them, you can get into some bad counts,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought Tarik did a job of pitching to the game situation, but they had a good approach and continued it against our bullpen.”
The Royals scored six runs in the seventh inning, which featured nine consecutive hits, two stolen bases, and a wild pitch, driving Skubal out of the game.
“You can’t ever plan for that, for sure, but the approaches were so good, especially once we got going a little bit,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “That inning was remarkable.”
The Tigers, who have been outscored 34-7 during a five-game losing streak, took a 2-0 lead with Justyn-Henry Malloy’s home run in the first inning. But Perez hit a home run off the bricks behind the stands in left-center field in the second inning, making it 2-1.
“I thought he set the tone for us with the home run,” Quatraro said. “Skubal has no-hit stuff every night, and he goes up there and crushed that slider. That got us right back in the game after they got two.”
Perez scored from first base on Hunter Renfroe’s double in the fourth inning, and Paul DeJong, on his 31st birthday, made it 3-2 with a sacrifice fly to score Renfroe.
The Royals blew the game open in the seventh. Dairon Blanco and Maikel Garcia singled with one out, ending Skubal’s night. Bobby Witt Jr. then hit an infield single off Shelby Miller to load the bases.
“You don’t want to let anyone see a pitcher for a fourth time, and as the inning developed, we wanted to get a different look to the middle of the order,” Hinch said. “It’s frustrating when that doesn’t work, and it obviously didn’t tonight.”
