Splitting headache
Red Sox slide continues as the Tigers pound Perez in lopsided loss
DETROIT — Victor Reyes tripled twice and drove in three runs, Tarik Skubal pitched five scoreless innings, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox 8-1 on Thursday.
Skubal (7-10) allowed five hits and struck out four. He had surrendered six home runs in 10
⅔ innings during his last two starts.
“I wanted to attack these guys, especially up in the zone with the fastball and then just keep them off-balance with everything else,” Skubal said. “They’re a really good fastball hitting team, especially in fastball counts.”
Robbie Grossman hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. He departed the game prior to the third with a bruised left elbow after getting hit by a pitch.
Jonathan Schoop contributed two hits and two RBIS for Detroit. Miguel Cabrera went 0-for-4 with a walk and remained two homers shy of 500.
Detroit took two of three from Boston. “This is a good team across the way and we held our own,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re still fighting to win every game. We don’t put any more pressure on ourselves whether we’re playing a winning team or a team under .500.”
The Red Sox lost for the sixth time in seven games and dropped 1 ½ games behind idle Tampa Bay in the AL East.
“We didn’t pitch. We didn’t play good defense. We didn’t hit,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It wasn’t a good effort today. Where we’re at right now, we’ve got to get better. That’s the bottom line.”
Boston starter Martin Perez (7-8) equaled his shortest outing of the season, allowing three runs on five hits in 1 ⅓ innings. Alex Verdugo had two hits and drove in the lone Red Sox run.
“I know we’re in August and it’s a grind but we have a good opportunity to play in October,” Cora said. “We’ve put ourselves in this situation. People can doubt us (but) ... we have a good baseball team and we know we can do it.”
Grossman blasted an 0-2 pitch for his 17th home run.
Detroit extended its lead to 3-0 in the third. Reyes led off with a triple and scored on Zack Short’s sacrifice fly. Schoop added a basesloaded groundout.