Tarik Skubal tied his career high with 13 strikeouts in the first complete-game shutout of his career, lifting the Detroit Tigers to a 5-0 victory over the visiting Cleveland Guardians on Sunday.
Skubal (5-2), the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, retired the first 15 batters he faced and gave up only two hits without issuing a walk. Skubal had never thrown a complete game in his previous 113 starts.
Zach McKinstry hit a two-run homer to spark a five-run fourth inning for the Tigers, who salvaged the finale of a four-game series with their Central Division rival. Detroit’s Gleyber Torres reached base three times, scored a run and knocked in one.
Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a single in the seventh inning.
Guardians starter Logan Allen (2-3) gave up five runs (four earned) and six hits in 3 2/3 innings. Nic Enright, making his major league debut, struck out three in two scoreless innings of relief.
Detroit squandered a scoring opportunity in the second inning, leaving the bases loaded.
Allen walked Torres and Riley Greene in the third, but Spencer Torkelson bounced into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
The floodgates opened in the fourth. Justyn-Henry Malloy reached on an infield single and scored on McKinstry’s two-run shot. McKinstry’s homer, his third of the season, came on a full count.
Javier Baez followed with a double and moved to third on a flyout. Torres’ double to left scored Baez, and Torres scored on Andy Ibanez’s single. Another throwing error by Allen on a Greene bouncer allowed Ibanez to score.
Will Wilson became the first Guardians baserunner when he ripped an opposite-field double to lead off the sixth. Nolan Jones was hit by a pitch with one out, but Skubal got out of trouble as Angel Martinez bounced into a double play.
Skubal struck out two in the seventh, fanning Kyle Manzardo with a 101-mph fastball. He set down Austin Hedges with a changeup to finish the eighth.
Skubal blew a 103-mph fastball past Gabriel Arias to complete the shutout.
–Field Level Media
