DETROIT – Tarik Skubal dominated the Houston Astros to lead the Detroit Tigers to a win in Game 1 of the wild card round.
This was the first playoff game for the Tigers in 10 years, and it was worth the wait. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead and rode their pitching staff until the ninth inning.
Despite one last push by the Astros in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers managed to hang on and take the critical first game.
Now Detroit just needs to win one of the next two games to advance to the divisional round against the Cleveland Guardians.
Second inning ambush
The Tigers got off to a strong start against Houston ace Framber Valdez. They worked themselves into several favorable counts and broke through in the top of the second inning.
It began with a one-out single from Wenceel Perez and continued with a Spencer Torkelson walk. Parker Meadows beat out a double play ball to keep the inning alive, and Jake Rogers made it count with a 3-0 base hit up the middle to put the Tigers on the board.
Trey Sweeney came up followed suit, banging a base hit into center to score Meadows. Vierling ripped a third-straight single into center to put the Tigers up 3-0.
Taxing 4th inning
Tarik Skubal didn’t have much trouble getting through the Astros lineup the first two innings. He needed just five pitches in the first and 10 in the second.
But they really made him work after that.
Skubal threw 18 pitches to get through the third inning, even though it began with the 7-8-9 hitters.
Then, in the fourth, following a leadoff single by Yordan Alvarez on an 0-2 pitch, Alex Bregman and Yainer Diaz put together back-to-back nine-pitch battles -- one ending with a fly out and the second with a walk.
Skubal worked his way out of the two-on, one-out jam, but it cost him 29 total pitches, nearly doubling his total from the first three innings.
Fortunately, he got right back on track in the fifth with another five-pitch, 1-2-3 inning.
Tigers get to bullpen early
Valdez only got 13 outs before the Astros went to the bullpen in the top of the fifth inning.
He left the game having allowed three earned runs on seven hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. He struck out three.
The Tigers had a chance to tack on against reliever Hector Neris in the fifth, but Perez and Spencer Torkelson came up empty on some center-cut off-speed pitches to let him off the hook.
Tarik Skubal pulled after 6 innings
Even though he was only at 88 pitches, Skubal was pulled after six shutout innings.
He had two injury scares during the start -- a line drive off his glove hand/wrist area in the second inning and an apparent issue with his leg in the sixth.
Skubal shook off the line drive fairly quickly, and he also finished the sixth inning after talking to the trainer and shaking out his leg.
But the Tigers loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, so it’s possible A.J. Hinch didn’t want to risk sending him back out to the mound after such a long break.
Bullpen takes over
Will Vest took the ball to start the seventh inning, and he picked right up where Skubal left off.
Vest retired the Astros 1-2-3 in the seventh and also got the first two outs of the eighth inning. In total, he retired all five batters he faced, striking out four of them.
Tyler Holton got the final out of the eighth.
9th-inning scare
Jason Foley got the ninth inning and immediately ran into trouble. He served up a leadoff double to Alvarez and then allowed Bregman to reach on an infield single.
The tying run came to the plate with no outs.
Foley got ahead of Diaz 0-2, but then left a pitch in the zone and gave up a third-straight hit -- a bouncing single through the hole on the right side.
Alvarez scored and the Astros brought the winning run to the dish. Jeremy Pena bunted the runners over to second and third with one out.
Hinch decided to replace Foley with Beau Brieske, hoping for some swing-and-miss to get out of the jam.
Brieske got a soft fly ball to left field from Victor Caratini but then walked Chas McCormick to load the bases with two outs and a 3-1 lead.
Jason Heyward came up with the winning run on first and worked a 2-2 count before lining out to Torkelson at first.
