Tarik Skubal gave up three hits over five innings to earn his 17th win, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 4-2 victory against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night. This win brought the Tigers within half a game of a playoff spot with 10 games left to play.
Riley Greene hit a key home run that put the Tigers ahead as they won their fourth straight game and ninth out of their last 11. By sweeping the series, Detroit won 25 of their last 35 games, closing in on Minnesota (80-72) for the third AL wild-card spot.
“These guys, first of all we believe, and second we come every day to try to win the game, and we are winning a lot, which is fun to watch these guys learn and grow and compete until the end of the game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.
Skubal (17-4) has now won his last five games, strengthening his case for the AL Cy Young Award. He is tied with Atlanta’s Chris Sale for the most wins in the majors and has lowered his AL-leading earned run average to 2.48. He walked one batter and struck out seven.
“Really proud of the guys. Last time we came here we were on the other side of the sweep,” Skubal said. “We’ve got a great group, a resilient group. I mean if you just look at the season that we’ve had, I think it shows in this series.”
Before this game, Skubal had struggled against the Royals, with a 2-9 record and a 5.05 ERA in 12 starts. After giving up three hits and an RBI single to Yuli Gurriel in the first inning, he pitched four hitless innings.
“We put some good at-bats on him early, but once he got the runs, five of the next six hitters were 0-2 counts. He’s coming after us,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said about Skubal. “But that’s how he pitches. He’s not picking at the corners. He’s got elite stuff and he knows it.”
Skubal shouted with excitement after striking out Royals All-Star catcher Salvador Perez with two runners on base for his final out in the fifth inning.
“For me it’s always about executing pitches,” Skubal said. “If I can execute pitches at a high clip, I like my chances against anybody, no matter how many times they’ve seen me.”
Manager A.J. Hinch was pleased to see his star pitcher work through 95 pitches, even though he wasn’t as sharp as in previous outings.
“It was a big fight for him, but he did a great job,” Hinch said. “Sometimes five is enough, and he did his job by getting the biggest out against his biggest nemesis and showed a ton of emotion. … If he somehow isn’t able to make pitches to Salvy, who has been good against him, this game’s completely different.
He’s our guy. We needed our guy to do his part, and he did.” The Royals (82-71) lost their fourth straight game, marking the first time they were swept at home this season and the third time overall.
They remained 2 1/2 games behind Baltimore for the first wild-card spot and 1 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota for the second wild card. The Orioles and Twins both lost earlier on Wednesday.
Skubal struck out major league batting leader Bobby Witt Jr. twice before hitting him with a pitch in the fifth inning. Witt made history by becoming the first player with multiple seasons of 30 home runs and 30 steals in his first three seasons on Tuesday.
He also broke Hal McRae’s 1977 franchise record with his 87th extra-base hit of the season, a bloop double to start the eighth inning.
Perez then drove in Witt with a single off reliever Brenan Hanifee. Sean Guenther helped maintain the 4-2 lead with a double play and a fly out. Guenther recorded the first out of the ninth, and Will Vest secured the last two outs for his second save.
Royals starter Alec Marsh (8-9), who had a career-high 11 strikeouts in his last start, lasted only 2 2/3 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on five hits and three walks.
Perez and Yuli Gurriel, who is hitting .385 since joining the Royals from Atlanta, each had two hits for the Royals.
