Tarik Skubal pitched seven strong innings Tuesday as the visiting Detroit Tigers broke a three-game losing skid with a 5-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Harold Castro had a two-run single and Jonathan Schoop, Spencer Torkelson and Tucker Barnhart hit RBI doubles for the Tigers.
Skubal (5-2) had an interesting night. The Tigers announced their intention of skipping his start about an hour before game time in favor of a bullpen game because storms were forecast to interrupt the contest. The storms came in time to delay the start of the game by 2 hours, 5 minutes, so Skubal was reinstated.
That didn’t seem to cause problems for the 25-year-old left-hander, who allowed three runs and six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks.
Detroit’s Alex Lange tossed a scoreless eighth inning, and Gregory Soto pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 11th save.
Cal Mitchell hit a two-run homer and Yu Chang had an RBI double for the Pirates, who were 5-1 in their previous six games.
Pittsburgh starter Jose Quintana (1-3) pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs and seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk.
With two outs in the second, Mitchell singled up the middle and scored on Chang’s pop to shallow right that dropped in off Schoop’s glove for a double. It was Chang’s first hit in a combined 20 at-bats this season for the Cleveland Guardians and the Pirates.
Detroit tied it in the third. Willi Castro singled to right with two outs and scored on Schoop’s double to left-center.
The Tigers kept it going in the fourth. Javier Baez singled to left and stole second. After Austin Meadows struck out, Torkelson doubled off the wall in center, driving in Baez for a 2-1 lead.
Daz Cameron singled to right and Barnhart walked to load the bases. Harold Castro’s base hit to center brought Torkelson and Cameron in to make it 4-1.
Jack Suwinski got hit by a pitch to lead off the Pittsburgh fourth. Skubal struck out Michael Chavis and Diego Castillo before Mitchell unloaded his second career homer, to right, to close the deficit to 4-3.
In the eighth, Torkelson walked with one out. Cameron reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on Barnhart’s double to right, pushing the lead to 5-3.
–Field Level Media