Skubal leads Tigers in statement win vs. Sox

DETROIT -- The Tigers say they’re focused on winning games, not making statements. Still, as they reveled in Thursday’s 8-1 win over a Red Sox team in the thick of a playoff race, the Tigers sat in a place few would’ve figured when they left Boston three months ago.

The Tigers lost two of three in that series at the start of May, but had scored 25 runs and pulled off an extra-innings comeback. It was a sign of competitive baseball from a club that owned a 9-24 record at the time. Detroit is 44-35 since that series, including a resounding win Thursday afternoon following an ugly loss Wednesday night.

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“We wanted to win a series, and I wanted to put our team in position to win a ballgame today. That was the goal for me,” said Tarik Skubal, whose five scoreless innings against a dangerous right-handed lineup set the tone. “We won a series from a really good team. Obviously we want to do that every time.”

“I know it sounds coach-speak, but I love to win the day,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “And then we won a series, and we won a homestand. We just keep being very present in what the challenge is in front of us.”

While Miguel Cabrera’s chase for his 500th home run will continue on to Cleveland beginning Friday night, so will Detroit’s resurgence. The Tigers can move into second place in the AL Central if they can sweep the three-game series, something they haven’t done at Progressive Field since April 2015. Yet they took two of three there in their previous visit at the end of June.

At the time, a smattering of Cleveland fans were chanting for Cabrera to retire. He’ll return with a chance at history at a ballpark where he has hit 26 of his 498 career homers, tied with Guaranteed Rate Field for his most at any visiting park.

Just being within sight of second place in the Central seemed like a distant milestone on the long-term rebuild until recently. Thursday was a microcosm of how they got here.

As they did in so many other games this summer, the Tigers churned out offense with limited power. Robbie Grossman’s leadoff home run was Detroit’s only homer of the day. Victor Reyes tripled from both sides of the plate, including a two-run, two-out gapper to right-center that plated Cabrera following his 10-pitch walk against Hansel Robles as part of a three-run fifth inning that put the game away.

By that point, the Tigers had long since chased Red Sox starter Martín Pérez, who gave up more hits (five) than he recorded outs (four).

By contrast, Skubal is one of the many young Tigers whose individual season mirrors the rally of his team. He was 0-6 with a 5.73 ERA through his first eight appearances, and searching for answers on how to translate his dominant arsenal from Spring Training into regular-season results. Since then, he’s 7-4 with a 3.72 ERA and 90 strikeouts over 77 1/3 innings, averaging just under six innings per start over his last 14 outings.

It wasn’t a dominant outing from Skubal, who allowed five hits and a walk, but it showcased some of his best pitches in weeks. He retired the side in order in a 14-pitch first inning with an arsenal that ranged from a 97 mph fastball to strike out Kiké Hernández to a 74 mph curveball for a swing-and-miss against former Tigers slugger J.D. Martinez.

From there, he stranded six runners over his final five innings. When his errant pickoff throw put runners at second and third with one out in the third inning and a 2-0 count against Martinez, Skubal refocused and pounded Martinez inside with fastballs, something he had struggled to do in recent outings, before freezing him with a 95 mph fastball on the inside edge.

After Skubal gave up three homers in each of his previous starts, pitching coach Chris Fetter convinced him to try a change on positioning on the pitching rubber, moving back to the middle instead of his usual spot on the first-base side.

“That adjustment was huge for me, especially being able to get in to righties,” Skubal said. “I did that a lot today, and when I missed, I missed in instead of back over the plate for the most part.”

Skubal missed over the plate to Xander Bogaerts, but center fielder Derek Hill ran down his fly ball in center to end the threat.

Skubal also had a better mix of pitches, including the aforementioned curveball. The one Red Sox hitter who really troubled Skubal, ironically, was a left-handed hitter. Alex Verdugo’s fourth-inning double was Skubal’s only extra-base hit, following Verdugo’s infield single to create a two-out jam in the second.

“Obviously the good fastball today really set the tone, and he came up with big strikeouts when he was dealing with traffic,” Hinch said.