Tarik Skubal tosses six solid innings, Tigers unable to complete sweep

DETROIT — The challenge with making up a multi-game deficit in the standings in the final few weeks of a season is that so many things have to go right. While the 2009 Tigers are remembered for losing a seven-game lead in the American League Central from Labor Day weekend to season’s end, Detroit went 10-10 before losing the tiebreaker. The Twins caught them by winning 16 of their last 20.

Sometimes, the difference in a hot streak comes down to inches. If Riley Greene didn’t make a leaping catch at the left-field fence, Ezequiel Tovar could’ve had an RBI double or a two-run homer, and the Rockies might have led for most of Thursday afternoon.

“I knew it was going to be deep; didn’t know it was going to go over,” Greene said after the Tigers’ 4-2 loss. “Just trying to go up and make a good catch for [Tarik Skubal]. … Ball’s gotta be caught.”

Then again, a few inches might have been the difference between Skubal catching Brenton Doyle’s sixth-inning comebacker in his glove rather than off the base of his glove hand. That might have been the difference between Skubal going another inning beyond the six frames of one-run ball he provided, leaving with a one-run lead.

“I have a whole glove, and I decided to catch it with my hand,” Skubal joked. “Not smart on my side.”

While Skubal should be fine, the Tigers’ playoff chances took a bigger impact. Detroit fell 3 1/2 games behind idle Minnesota in the AL Wild Card chase with 15 games to play. The Tigers’ next nine games come against the Orioles (three games this weekend at Comerica Park, three games next weekend in Baltimore) and Royals (three in Kansas City next week).

In the big picture, the Tigers fulfilled what they always talk about doing: Keep racking up series wins. They’ve talked in that sense since the season began, and if they can do that against Baltimore and Kansas City, they’ll still be in good shape heading home for the Rays and White Sox.

“The way we lost stings a little bit, but we’ll be alright,” Skubal said. “We won a series, and that’s the goal to do the next series, too.”

And yet, the mood in the clubhouse reflected the sense of a missed opportunity.

“All losses suck. I don’t think it really matters what the result of it is,” said Spencer Torkelson, whose two-run, two-out double in the fourth accounted for Detroit’s offense. “Obviously we’d like to get a win here, but we didn’t. They just beat us, and that’s that. Come back tomorrow ready to go.”

Skubal allowed a run on Jordan Beck’s third-inning home run, a hanging curveball sent deep to left. It was the lone extra-base hit among the four hits Skubal allowed, with no walks and six strikeouts. He lowered his AL-best ERA to 2.50 and retook the league lead with 214 strikeouts.

Still, he felt like he could’ve done better.

“I didn’t really execute pitches at a great clip today,” Skubal said. “Not a lot of first-pitch strikes, a lot of misfires. I’ve gotta get back to what makes me a good pitcher, and what I did today, I don’t think is what makes me a good pitcher. Too many misfires in there. But yeah, I kept us in the game.”

The unforeseen factor, though, was how Rockies starter Ryan Feltner stymied a Tigers offense that scored 27 runs over its previous three games. A single from Greene and Jace Jung’s walk set up Torkelson’s double — but Detroit had just two hits otherwise and didn’t put another runner in scoring position until Colt Keith’s walk and Torkelson’s chopper past the shortstop put the potential tying run on base in the ninth.

“[Feltner] was throwing his heater at the top and throwing his changeup off of it,” Greene said. “He wasn’t really missing too much.”