Tarik Skubal and the Dodgers bullpen bully the Tigers

The Tigers were unable to spoil Tarik Skubal’s homecoming. The now Dodgers ace had a pretty normal, excellent but nothing special start, while Tigers pitching dealt with a ton of traffic on the bases all night long. They held up enough to make it close, but the offense couldn’t cope with Dodgers pitching, losing 2-1 in front of a big Friday night crowd at Comerica Park.

Drew Anderson took the mound against Tarik Skubal on Friday night in front of a pretty packed crowd out to welcome the former Tigers’ ace home, and hopefully beat him. Anderson started off well, quickly retiring the first two batters he faced, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman on swinging strike threes.. He then walked Mookie Betts and Max Muncy, but escaped by getting Tommy Edman to ground out to first.

At that point it was Skubal time, and the former Tigers’ ace was clearly feeling overwhelmed by emotion as he entered from the visitor’s bullpen to cheers and a video tribute on the scoreboard. He saluted the fans and his old teammates in the Tigers dugout as he wiped his eyes with a towel. He got a standing ovation as he took the mound in the bottom of the first, and then everyone got down to business again.

A first pitch Skubal heater was smoked for a double by Gleyber Torres, but the big lefty dialed in and punched out Hao-Yu Lee and Kevin McGonigle, with Dillon Dingler flying out to Alek Thomas in center field to end the first.

Anderson held serve in the second with a quick 1-2-3 inning to get his pitch count back in order. He dusted Teoscar Hernandez with a good high fastball in that tied him up. Skubal whiffed Eduardo Valencia and got Ben Malgeri and Spencer Torkelson, the latter of which lined out to Betts at shortstop .

Anderson gave up a leadoff walk to Hunter Feduccia to start the third, but erased him on a double play ball from Ohtani. He then walked Freeman, but dusted Betts to end the inning. Skubal tore through Max Clark, Javy Báez, and Torres, striking out the side.

Anderson gave up one out singles to Edman and Tucker in the top of the fourth, but Thomas grounded into a double play to end that threat. Lee lined out to Edman in right to start the bottom of the third. McGonigle and Dingler grounded out, and we were quickly on to the fifth.

Hernandez lined a single to left to open the fifth. Feduccia flew out, but Anderson walked Ohtani. A long at-bat against Freeman followed, in which Freddie fouled off a bunch of good pitches and Dingler wasted a challenge. Eight foul balls in the at-bat had Anderson frustrated, but Dingler called for a change of pace with the curveball, and a perfect one whiffed Freeman. Still, Anderson was at 85 pitches. Betts lined a one-hopper to Lee, who couldn’t handle it, but fortunately the ball didn’t bounce far away and everyone had to hold up with one base. The bases were loaded, and Anderson’s day was done. Drew Sommers entered, looking to keep this a scoreless deadlock.

A pair of heaters got him ahead 0-2 against Max Muncy. He missed high with a fourseamer, and Muncy fouled off the next one. He missed with another one away trying to catch him fishing. The next one jammed him and was fought off for a foul. Sommers wasn’t giving in and trying to mix in the slider. He fired a perfect 96 mph heater up and in but still in the zone and Muncy swung through it. Great job working through that inning, and the score was still tied 0-0, but there was a long way to go and a lot of outs for the Tigers bullpen to collect.

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First, the Tigers needed to get Skoobs out of the game. Valencia gave them a shot with a leadoff double to left. Malgeri grounded out, and Skubal locked up Torkelson with a perfect backdoor slider. Tork blew the Tigers’ last challenge on a pitch fully in the zone, which didn’t help matters. Fortunately, Max Clark was there, and he smoked a 1-2 heater at 99 mph right down the left field line at 105 mph off the bat to plate Valencia. The ball rattled around and Hernandez couldn’t retrieve it immediately as Clark roared into third with an RBI triple. 1-0 Tigers. Báez drilled a ball deep to center, but Thomas had it without issue, and we were onto the sixth.

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Sommers locked up Edman in a 2-2 count with a heater right down the gut to start the sixth. Tucker grounded one to McGonigle at shortstop with a broken bat, and McGonigle collected the slow roller and threw it over Torkelson into the Dodgers dugout, putting the runner on second. The right-handed Enrique Hernandez pinch-hit for Alek Thomas at that point. Hernandez fell behind 0-2, but then rifled a fastball on a line to right field for a single, but Malgeri picked it and fired a strike home to Dingler to cut down Tucker at the plate. Heck of a play by Ben Malgeri there.

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Of course, that was only two outs, and Hernandez battled Sommers into a 3-2 count, and the lefty missed away to walk him. So there were runners on first and second, and Miguel Rojas entered to pinch-hit for Feduccia. He got a first pitch sinker and smoked it past McGonigle on a line to tie the game 1-1. That brought Ohtani to the plate, and the situation was far from ideal. However, Sommers got him to foul off a pair of heaters and then locked him up high and away in the corner of the strike zone to turn the Dodgers away. The McGonigle error was costly, but it was still a tie game at 1-1. Sommers was at 27 pitches and likely done. Chris Fetter was seen holding Sommers by the shoulders and pumping him up after a good outing. However, figuring out how to get the next nine outs was the issue.

Torres was still seeing Skubal well, and after battling him for a while, lined a leadoff single to start the bottom of the sixth. Lee bounced one to Betts, who got Torres at second, but they couldn’t turn the double play as Lee beat feet down the line. McGonigle was having less fun with Skubal, and flew out to Hernandez in left. Dingler got a good pitch to hit and drilled a drive to right field, but Tucker was there to turn the Tigers away.

Tyler Holton took over in the seventh, but Freeman greeted him with a sharp single. A good fading changeup away whiffed Betts, and Holton quickly popped Muncy up to McGonigle for the second out. An 0-1 changeup to Edman’s was in the dirt and bounced away from Dingler to get Freeman to second. Edman’s chased a changeup well away to get the count to 1-2, but Holton yanked a cutter and hit him on the leg. Kyle Tucker, who is going through a nightmarish season after signing a huge deal with the Dodgers, got ahead 2-0, but Holton worked back to 3-2 as Jacob Waguespack was warming up. Then the lefty missed and walked Tucker to load the bases. A.J. Hinch bounced out of the dugout to make the change as Hernandez came to the plate. The right-hander did the job, popping up Hernandez to again strand the bases loaded.

The Tigers were playing with fire all game long, but they’d escaped so far and a couple of runs could put the Dodgers in a tight spot. With Skubal out of the game, their odds looked a little better.

Dave Roberts turned to right-hander Evan Phillips to start the bottom of the seventh, and Hinch countered with Colt Keith batting for Valencia. Keith struck out swinging, and Phillips stayed with the heat and blew away Malgeri as well. Torkelson took a first pitch heater for a strike, was approximately five minutes late swinging at the next one, and a sweeper down and away in the dirt drew a feeble whiff to end the inning.

Waguespack gave up a leadoff single to Hernandez, and once again in the eighth the Tigers would have to dig themselves out of an inning. Ben Rortveldt, catching after Feduccia was lifted, dropped down a successful sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second. That brought Shohei to the dish. Waguespack fell behind 3-1, and walking him didn’t seem like the worst idea. A high fastball was fouled off, and Ohtani pulled a curveball foul down the right field line. Waguespack, whose teal glove contrasted nicely with the orange alternate jerseys, came back with a good heater at the bottom of the zone, and Ohtani pulled a ground to Torres for the second out. That brought Freeman to the plate, and as Benetti discussed walking him to pitch to Betts, Waguespack fired a first pitch heater and Freeman lined an RBI single for a 2-1 lead. Betts lined out to Clark, but the Tigers were now down a run and would face a really tough right-hander in Brock Stewart in the bottom half.

Max Clark coolly took three straight balls to get in a great hitter’s count. Stewart countered with a pair of strikes, but missed away with the 3-2 to put the speedy Clark on first to start the bottom half of the eighth. Brett Callahan pinch-hit for Javy Báez and ripped an 0-1 changeup to right for a sharp single. Torres, who had two hits already…grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. So, Clark was at third with two outs as Lee stepped to the dish. Stewart missed with three straight as Lee stayed patient, and Dave Roberts decided to give Lee an intentional pass. He then called on lefty Alex Vesia to try to get Kevin McGonigle in a bat that would likely decide the game. Vesia fired a first pitch fastball and McGonigle drove one high and deep into the right center field corner, but he lifted it a bit too much and Enrique Hernandez hauled it in just before the warning track.

Tyler Kinley handled the top of the ninth for the Tigers. Claimed off waivers from the Braves on Monday, Kinley quickly collected the first two outs, but then walked Kyle Tucker. That was the eighth walk issued by Tigers pitchers on the night. Tucker stole second, and it didn’t matter as Kinley walked Enrique Hernandez as well. Surely this wouldn’t become an issue, right? Teoscar Hernandez was up next. A pair of good sliders drew whiffs, and they tried again but Hernandez just held up. In a 1-2 count, Kinley missed away with a fourth straight slider, and a fifth over the middle was popped into the seats. Would he try to sneak a fastball past Hernandez? Nope. Another slider drew a foul pop-up that Lee charged in and handled to end the inning. The Dodgers were now 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position, with 15 LOBsters.

Southpaw closer Tanner Scott took the mound in the bottom half to close it out against Dingler, Keith, and Malgeri. Dingler took a nasty 2-2 slider down for a ball, but a second one up in the zone locked him up and he swung late to strike out. Corey Julks entered to hit for Keith against the lefty and grounded out to Betts. Malgeri was also locked up by Scott’s heavily tilting fastball and whiffed to end this one.

The Tigers put up a fight but while the Dodgers struggled to score in this one, the Tigers lineup got a good dose of elite caliber pitching in this one and managed just five hits and two walks drawn, while the Dodgers had nine hits and nine walks. It could’ve been worse, but either way it’s an L in the record books.

RHP Keider Montero will take the mound against LHP Blake Snell on Saturday at 1:10 p.m. ET.