Skubal strikes out 9, Tigers hand Giants season-worst 6th consecutive loss, 5-1

Tarik Skubal struck out nine while recording his first victory in more than a year and the Detroit Tigers handed the San Francisco Giants their season-worst sixth consecutive loss, 5-1, on Monday.

Skubal (1-1) held the Giants scoreless on two hits in five innings in a match that was a makeup of an April 16 rainout. His previous victory came versus Oakland on July 21 last season. He underwent flexor tendon surgery in August.

Skubal had pitched just four innings in each of his first three starts. He gave up seven runs to Kansas City in his last outing.

“I felt like I was in attack mode the whole game,” he said. “It felt like my command get better as the game went on. It was good to adjust from the last one into this one, for sure.”

Skubal finished off his outing with a pair of strikeouts.

“If you can show different things to hitters the next time you see them, it’s incredibly impactful,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “When you go up to bat and you know he’s juiced up today, he’s throwing high velo and can drop a slow breaking ball in, it just immediately puts the hitter on the defensive.”

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Zack Short hit a two-run homer and Kerry Carpenter also drove in two runs for Detroit. Riley Greene had three hits and scored twice.

Giants starter Ross Stripling (0-4) gave up three runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings. 

Wilmer Flores homered for San Francisco, which scored one run in each of the last three games. The Giants wrapped up a season-long 11-game road trip.

“Obviously, we haven’t played good enough baseball to win in the last (six) games,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “It hasn’t been up to par for us. We’re a better team than this. We know it. Got to get home, turn the page quickly and get ready for Oakland (on Tuesday).”

The Tigers scored a run in the first inning on Spencer Torkelson’s RBI single, which followed Greene’s one-out double. Detroit used three singles, including Carpenter’s run-scoring hit, to make it 2-0 in the third.

Carpenter drove home Greene with another single in the fifth.

“The middle of the order was excellent,” Hinch said.

Flores’ 13th homer of the season came off Jose Cisnero in the sixth, cutting Detroit’s lead to 3-1. Short, who entered as a defensive replacement, hit his first homer since June 21 in the eighth.

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