The Tigers were hoping to bounce back from their Tuesday evening loss to the Braves, and they were hoping Tarik Skubal would be the man on the mound to make that happen. Atlanta was leaning on J.R. Ritchie to get them the second win of the series.
The Tigers started out aggressively against Ritchie, with a one-out walk to Gleyber Torres followed by a single for Colt Keith. But two outs followed, despite Dillon Dingler’s attempt to challenge a third strike call that ended the inning. Skubal, meanwhile,
had a rough start to the first. with Drake Baldwin getting a one-out single, followed by some unfortunate deja vu as Ozzie Albies homered into left to score two runs. Atlanta would have to settle for just those runs, but it was a tough way to get the game going.
With two outs in the second it seemed like the Tigers might already be fizzling, but then Wenceel Perez doubled, followed by a Jace Jung walk. Kevin McGonigle then singled on a liner into center, bringing Perez home. Then, Ritchie made an error attempting to pick off McGonigle, which allowed Jung to come home and tie up the game. It was all the Tigers would get, but they were two mighty important runs.
The Braves went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning because Skubal doesn’t like having bad innings and tries to make teams suffer for them.
The third showed that the Tigers weren’t going to let this game stay tied for long. With one out, Riley Greene hit a solo home run practically to dead center. Two outs followed but the Tigers sure did have the lead when it was all said and done. Now they just had to keep it.
With two outs in the bottom of the third, Drake Baldwin singled, but the Braves weren’t able to convert the baserunner.
In the fourth, Perez got on base for the second time in the game with a one-out walk. Another out later, McGoingle continued to McGonigle, singling to put two men on. Unfortunately, a Gleyber Torres groundout ended the inning with no additional runs scored. In the home half, Matt Olson singled to start things off, but don’t clutch your pearls just yet because he was quickly eliminated in a double play off the bat of Austin Riley. A groundout then ended the inning no harm done.
The fifth inning saw the Tigers going 1-2-3. Michael Harris II singled to start the home half, but a flyout and double play then safely ended the inning.
Kerry Carpenter got a leadoff walk in the sixth, and while Ritchie did collect the first out of the inning with a Spencer Torkelson flyout, his day was still done. Dylan Lee came out of Atlanta’s bullpen to get the final two outs of the inning. A nice little 1-2-3 outing for Skubal in the home half had to feel good for everyone involved, especially Colt Keith whose precision throw to first got the final out of the inning.
The seventh was another 1-2-3 inning, and I don’t know about everyone else watching but I do feel like some insurance runs might be a good idea here. There was a concerning pause at the start of the home half where Skubal had Dingler come out to the mound and it looked like he might be having some left forearm discomfort. A.J. Hinch and assistant athletic trainer Kelly Rhoades came out to look at him, but he waved everyone off and stayed in the game. Whatever was going on with him didn’t seem to lessen his skill, though, as he mowed through the side in order.
Reynaldo López was the new Atlanta pitcher out of the pen in the top of the eighth. He got the Tigers three-up, three-down. In the home half, Skubal’s day was done after seven, his final line for the game was 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR on 91 pitches. Kyle Finnegan came in out of the Tigers’ pen. While a missed call would have gone Detroit’s way with a called third strike, it was overturned by the ABS for ball four for Dominic Smith. Ronald Acuña Jr. then drew a walk. A groundout from Baldwin ended the inning, though, and Finnegan was no worse for the wear.
The Tigers once again went 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, and had to hope they’d done enough to hold onto the lead. Helping them manage it would be Kenley Jansen in the bottom of the inning, trying to add to his all-time saves total. Jansen started out rough, with a leadoff walk to Ozzie Albies. Matt Olson then hit a home run right into the bullpen to walk off the game and make the Tigers regret not getting more insurance runs.
