MINNEAPOLIS — Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal hasn't reached the 100-pitch milestone during the 2024 season. The trend continued in his 17th start, Tuesday's series opener against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field.
Skubal completed six innings on 94 pitches, allowing three runs, but he didn't return to the mound for the seventh inning. In the seventh, the Twins took the lead against right-handed reliever Will Vest and never looked back.
The Tigers lost, 5-3, to the Twins on Tuesday in the first of three games at Target Field. With their latest loss, the Tigers (38-47) have dropped 17 of their past 24 games, including six losses in their past eight games.
"We've been very consistent with Tarik and what we're asking out of him this year," manager A.J. Hinch said, when asked about removing Skubal after six innings. "We've leaned on him a ton. He's a power pitcher. He empties his tank. We felt like he'd done his part."
The Tigers and Twins were tied, 3-3, when Hinch replaced Skubal with Vest to open the seventh inning against the ever-dangerous Byron Buxton.
Buxton slapped Vest's middle-middle fastball down the right-field line for a leadoff ground-rule double. He then advanced to third base on Vest's wild pitch.
On an ensuing ground ball, second baseman Colt Keith tried to throw out Buxton trying to score, but his throw to catcher Jake Rogers went to the first-base side of home plate, and as a result, Buxton was safe with a head-first slide.
Just like that, the Twins took a 4-3 lead over the Tigers.
"Will coming in there, we love the fastball to Buxton," Hinch said of replacing Skubal with Vest. "He drops one either on the line or just inside the line. ... Buxton's speed and the ability to make contact at the right time led to that run."
The Twins extended their lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning when shortstop Carlos Correa — hitting .418 in his past 23 games — smoked a middle-middle slider from right-handed reliever Beau Brieske for a 421-foot solo home run to left-center field.
"Two runs was tough to get off their bullpen," Hinch said.
Tarik Skubal Day
Skubal, the frontrunner to win the American League Cy Young Award, allowed three runs on four hits and one walk with seven strikeouts across six innings.
The Twins scored two runs in the third inning and one run in the fifth inning.
"I thought I threw the ball well," Skubal said. "I pulled a couple of changeups. ... I thought pitch execution was good. Hats off to that lineup. They made me battle, and I thought I threw the ball where I wanted to a lot of times, so it was a good day in that aspect."
Skubal won an 11-pitch battle against Correa for the second out in the third inning, striking him out with a sinker painted on the bottom rail of the zone, but Royce Lewis — who later exited the game with left groin tightness — lined a down-and-in changeup that moved into his bat path down the left-field line for a two-run double, scoring Kyle Farmer (single) and Manuel Margot (single).
There wasn't a play at the plate because shortstop Ryan Kreidler dropped the relay throw from left fielder Akil Baddoo.
"I was pulling changeups for the first three or four innings," Skubal said of Lewis' double. "I kept pulling them, and that just happened to be one of them. It's unfortunate that happened in that situation, but whatever, tip your cap to a good hitter, too."
In the fifth inning, Margot hit a down-and-away changeup for a solo home run to left-center field. HIs third homer of the season tied the game, 3-3.
Skubal, who finished his start by striking out Carlos Santana swinging with a changeup, generated 14 whiffs on 54 swings — a 25.9% whiff rate — with two fastballs, seven changeups, three sinkers and two sliders.
The Twins entered Tuesday's game with a .797 OPS against left-handed pitchers, the second highest in baseball behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers, at .803.
"What an opportunity," Skubal said. "Great challenge."
As for the matchup, the Twins had an average exit velocity of 89.8 mph on 15 balls in play against Skubal, including an average of 97.1 mph on seven balls in play from his changeup, but despite some hard contact, Skubal limited them to three runs.
His ERA increased from 2.32 to 2.45.
"They're pretty strong, one through nine," Skubal said. "It's a good lineup, it's a good team. They're playing good baseball right now. It's a good opportunity to go out there, challenge guys and see where you're at. It was fun. Coming out on the wrong side of it always sucks, but as far as my opportunity, it was fun."
Two homers, three runs
The Tigers scored three runs in the fifth inning, all against right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson.
Rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy, who delivered a two-out single in the second inning, turned on Woods Richardson's middle-in changeup and crushed a 402-foot solo home run to left field. After Baddoo's single, Kreidler turned on a middle-in slider for a 395-foot two-run homer to left field.
"I definitely have quite a few at-bats against him in Triple-A," Malloy said of Woods Richardson. "I know he's got a good changeup. He commands well. I just wanted to get a good swing off. I know he's throwing the ball in the zone quite often, so I wanted to put a good swing on it and pass the baton."
It was Malloy's fourth homer of the season. Kreidler, meanwhile, logged his first homer in 15 games this season and the second homer in his 52-game MLB career.
Woods Richardson allowed three runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts across 5⅔ innings, throwing 94 pitches. Aside from the fifth, the Tigers had just two hits in the other eight innings.
"We built some momentum that inning," Malloy said, "which was good, and that's positive, and that's definitely a positive to be able to take away from today and just build on it tomorrow."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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