HOUSTON — Tarik Skubal delivered a stellar performance, throwing six scoreless innings and leading the Detroit Tigers to a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the American League wild-card series on Tuesday.
With this victory, Detroit takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, marking their first postseason win since the 2013 AL Championship Series against Boston.
Skubal, a frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award, showcased his talent by allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out six batters. He retired the Astros in order in the first, second, and fifth innings, demonstrating exceptional control under pressure by preventing Houston from capitalizing with runners in scoring position, going 0-for-3 in such situations.
In the third inning, with two outs and runners on first and second, Skubal forced Kyle Tucker to fly out, ending the threat. He struck out Jeremy Pena and Victor Caratini to escape another jam in the fourth and capped off his impressive outing with a strikeout of Yainer Diaz after allowing a single in the sixth. Skubal finished with 88 pitches, 64 of which were strikes.
“That was a great environment,” Skubal said. “Obviously the history with this team — seven straight ALCS — speaks for itself. They have a lot of talent and handle left-handed pitching well. It was a good challenge and a lot of fun. It was probably the most nervous I’ve been since my debut in 2020, but I was glad to come out with the win.”
The Astros tapped left-hander Framber Valdez to start, but he struggled in the second inning. The Tigers launched a two-out rally, with Wenceel Perez and Spencer Torkelson getting on base through a single and a walk. Torkelson reached base after starting with an 0-2 count, and Parker Meadows extended the inning by beating out a double-play attempt.
RBI singles followed from Jake Rogers, Trey Sweeney, and Matt Vierling, creating a three-run inning that proved crucial, as Valdez struck out Justyn-Henry Malloy to end the frame. Valdez finished with seven hits allowed, two walks, and three strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings.
Astros manager Joe Espada said, “I thought we were one swing away from getting back in the game. We ran into a pretty good left-handed pitcher. Credit to Skubal; he made pitches and we battled until the end. We had a chance in the ninth, but couldn’t get the big hit.”
The Astros attempted a late rally against Tigers reliever Jason Foley in the ninth. Yordan Alvarez, Alex Bregman, and Yainer Diaz connected for consecutive hits, closing the gap to 3-1. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners, Tigers right-hander Beau Brieske entered and secured the final two outs, including a key lineout from Jason Heyward that left the bases loaded.