Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Ranger Suárez entered Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers with a 1.75 ERA in 15 starts, leading all MLB pitchers.
By the end of Suárez's 16th start, his ERA jumped to 2.01 (though still good enough for first place) because the Tigers scored four runs on five singles in the fifth inning.
The Tigers earned a 4-1 win over the Suárez-led Phillies on Tuesday in the second of three games in the series at Comerica Park. With the victory, the Tigers (37-42) can take the series from the Phillies in Wednesday's finale, facing ex-Tiger Spencer Turnbull.
"We've got to get a good pitch to hit against him," manager A.J. Hinch said of Wednesday's matchup with Turnbull. "He's been really good. We know everything he's got. We know all of his mannerisms. We know tomorrow is going to mean a lot to him."
JACK BE NIMBLE:Tigers' Flaherty finds elite version of fastball, slider by scrapping cutter
For the Tigers, left-hander Tarik Skubal — the frontrunner to win the American League Cy Young Award — delivered seven scoreless innings on three hits and one walk with seven strikeouts against the National League's best team to beat the NL's best pitcher.
He threw 91 pitches.
Skubal, who retired 13 of his final 14 batters, has a 2.32 ERA in 16 starts, which ranks fourth in MLB. He trails only Suárez (2.01), Boston Red Sox right-hander Tanner Houck (2.18) and Kansas City Royals right-hander Seth Lugo (2.29).
"You know runs are going to be at a premium," Skubal said of Suárez. "It's not going to change my approach, but you just know that going in. I'm going to pitch the same game and put my team in a position to win. It took five innings for us to break through, and we finally did in a big way."
The Tigers scored all four runs in the fifth inning against Suárez, sparked by three singles in a row from Justyn-Henry Malloy, Jake Rogers and Ryan Kreidler at the bottom of the lineup.
Kreidler failed to execute bunts on back-to-back pitches, immediately putting himself in a two-strike hole, but instead of striking out, he put a down-and-away changeup in play. The ball-in-play was ruled an infield single, but shortstop Trea Turner booted the ground ball from Kreidler to load the bases.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead when Matt Vierling grounded out.
"He's a tough pitcher because he's one out away from the double play or one out away from escaping any sort of pressure," Hinch said. "You can't run on him because he's an incredible athlete on the mound. You usually can't bunt on him. We just had to work the ball up (in the air) a little bit, and we didn't try to do too much."
Andy Ibáñez, a right-handed hitter who hits .375 against left-handed pitchers, provided some insurance when he attacked Suárez's down-and-away changeup for a single up the middle, scoring two runs for a 3-0 lead.
"I think Andy knows our schedule more than I do, as to when the lefties are probably scheduled," Hinch said. "I don't worry about him being prepared. He's going to compete. There's energy in his body during his at-bats, and today, he came up with a really big hit against a good guy at the right time."
A two-out triple from Riley Greene — his fourth triple this season —extended the Tigers' lead to 4-0. Greene shot Suárez's middle-down cutter past first baseman Bryce Harper and into the right-field corner.
Suárez allowed four runs on nine hits with zero walks and four strikeouts across six innings, throwing 88 pitches. He thrived on groundball outs in the early innings, but the Tigers found holes in the defense in the fifth to help Skubal win the pitching duel.
"Getting a cushion, you go right after these guys," Skubal said. "That helped a ton."
Skubal generated 19 whiffs on 42 swings —a 45.2% whiff rate —with 11 changeups, five fastballs, two sliders and one curveball. His fastball averaged 97.5 mph.
He bounced back from road performances of four-plus runs in his last two starts, in which he allowed four runs in 6⅓ innings to the Houston Astros and five runs (four earned runs) in four innings to the Atlanta Braves.
This time, Skubal shut down the Phillies.
Once again, he showed himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball.
"There's no point in hitting the panic button after just one bad one," Skubal said. "Just stay consistent and continue to go about my work and focus on executing pitches. I don't think I did a good job of that in my last time out, but I did a much better job with that today."
Finishing what Skubal started
Right-handed reliever Shelby Miller and right-handed reliever Jason Foley completed the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to finish what Skubal started.
Miller retired all three batters in the eighth.
Foley couldn't keep the shutout intact, as Harper — the first batter in the ninth —blasted an elevated fastball for a solo home run to left field, cutting the Phillies' deficit to 4-1.
It was Harper's 20th homer this season.
But Foley retired the next three batters —Alec Bohm (flyout), Nick Castellanos (groundout) and pinch-hitter Bryson Stott (flyout) —to finish the game in a tidy 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Contact Evan Petzold atepetzold@freepress.comor follow him@EvanPetzold.
Listen to our weekly Tigers show"Days of Roar"every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com,Apple,Spotifyor wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing atfreep.com/podcasts.
