Detroit Tigers sweep Reds in 5-1 win behind Tarik Skubal's elite performance

CINCINNATI — Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal turned his back to the batter and unleashed a scream.

That's how Skubal reacted when he struck out Austin Wynns swinging with one of his trademark changeups to strand a runner at second base in the seventh inning, holding a one-run lead.

It was his career-high 13th strikeout.

"The goal for me was to eat as many innings as I could," Skubal said, "and it ended up being seven. That's where the focus was at. The strikeouts happen, and that's a cool thing, but I'm more proud of the seven."

Skubal, named an American League All-Star for the first time in his career, completed seven innings of one-run ball to anchor the Tigers in a 5-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Sunday's series finale at Great American Ball Park, completing a three-game sweep and 5-5 record on the 10-game road trip.

The Tigers (42-48) swept a series for the first time since sweeping the season-opening series in late March against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

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"We've been away from home a long time and played a lot of different games," manager A.J. Hinch said, "but the last three have been really fun and pretty clean and pretty well-rounded from the group. Pretty much everybody has contributed in the last couple of games. It's fun to win."

Skubal lowered his ERA to 2.37 in 18 starts with Sunday's 93-pitch masterpiece. The 27-year-old didn't allow the Reds to score a run until his final inning.

He was nearly untouchable.

"We can stick with dominant," Hinch said. "That's always a good word. We're going home, and we want to finish this road trip on a high note and get to the next two series (before the All-Star break), and he goes out and dominates. He was locked in pretty much from the beginning."

The Reds managed just three hits in seven innings against him, without a walk. The three hits: Wynns' double in the third inning, Will Benson's single in the sixth inning and Jeimer Candelario's double in the seventh inning.

Skubal generated 23 whiffs on 51 swings — 45.1% whiff rate — with 12 changeups, five fastballs and six sliders. The Reds missed on 12 of their 18 swings on Skubal's changeup, only putting two in play.

"He kept it down in the zone," catcher Jake Rogers said of Skubal's changeup. "He got a lot of soft contact early, so we kept going to it. He threw a lot of curveballs early in the count to keep them thinking about another pitch, and I think it helped the changeup even that much more."

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Skubal threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of 23 batters.

He needed just 76 pitches to get through the first six innings — sparked by a six-pitch first inning — before throwing 17 pitches in the seventh inning.

"I just stayed aggressive," said Skubal, who credited Rogers for calling pitches. "The visuals he was able to give me made my job pretty easy. All I had to worry about was trying to execute a pitch. He's got feel back there."

The only trouble occurred in the seventh, when Candelario slapped an up-and-away fastball down the right-field line. The next batter, Spencer Steer, reached safely because of shortstop Zach McKinstry's fielding error on what should've been a routine groundout. Then, a wild pitch advanced both runners.

Candelario scored on Noelvi Marte's groundout to McKinstry, cutting the Tigers' lead to 2-1. But Skubal refused to squander the lead by getting back-to-back outs, including the emotional strikeout of Wynns. He also screamed after inning-ending strikeouts in the third and sixth innings.

It was one of the best starts in Skubal's five-year MLB career.

"He finished a couple of innings with some screams," Hinch said. "I love that. It's something that we feed off because they're all coming in big moments, and they're all authentic. You can't just yell and scream for no reason. He's in it."

Skubal joined 1968 World Series MVP Mickey Lolich, who pitched for the Tigers from 1963-75, as the only players in franchise history with an outing of 13 strikeouts, zero walks and no more than one run allowed.

"He rocked the 29 before I did," Skubal said. "It's cool."

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Tarik Skubal's run support

The Tigers scored one run in the fourth inning, one run in the seventh inning and three runs in the eighth inning. Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft allowed one run on six hits and three walks with two strikeouts across 4⅔ innings.

McKinstry finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs. He delivered an RBI single in the fourth inning for a 1-0 lead and a two-run home run in the eighth for a 4-1 lead.

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Colt Keith and Parker Meadows drove in the other two runs with RBI singles in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively.

Meadows — in third game since getting recalled from Triple-A Toledo — left the game in the eighth inning with a right hamstring injury after getting thrown out trying to steal second base, following his RBI single for a 5-1 advantage.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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Next up: Guardians

Matchup: Tigers (42-48) vs. Cleveland (56-32).

First pitch: 6:40 p.m. Monday; Comerica Park.

TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit, FS1; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Probable pitchers: Tigers — RHP Keider Montero (1-2, 6.60 ERA); Guardians — RHP Gavin Williams (0-1, 11.25).