DETROIT — They came to watch Miguel Cabrera chase milestones. They stayed to watch the Tigers take a home series from the Boston Red Sox.
Behind some gritty pitching by rookie left-hander Tarik Skubal and an outbreak of extra-base muscle, the Tigers beat the Red Sox, 8-1, in the rubber match of the three-game set Thursday afternoon before a crowd of 19,144 at Comerica Park.
They chased Boston lefty starter Martin Perez in the second inning. Robbie Grossman spanked his third pitch of the game, a 95-mph fastball, and sent it 417 feet over the bullpens in left field. It was his 17th home run of the season.
It was also the 16th homer Perez has yielded to a right-handed hitter, out of 17.
Grossman left the game after he was hit by a pitch in the left elbow in the second inning. The team’s initial report called it a contusion.
Victor Reyes made the most of his second start in eight games. He tripled and scored in a two-run second inning and tripled in two more runs in the fifth.
He’s the first Tiger to have multiple triples in a game since Ian Kinsler did it on July 17, 2017. He’s also the first Tiger to hit a triple from each side of the plate in the same game since Dmitri Young did it on May 6, 2003.
Reyes' triple in the fifth followed a clutch two-out, RBI double by Jeimer Candelario. Reyes had three RBIs on the day.
Jonathan Schoop had a productive day, as well. He had a pair of singles and knocked in two runs.
Before the Tigers blew the game open, though, Skubal was in full battle mode.
His fastball velocity dropped 3 mph in his last start (down to 93.7 mph on average), but he came out firing 97-mph pitches Thursday. He struck out both Kiki Hernandez and J.D. Martinez with 97s in the first inning.
His other four innings were exercises in stress management.
He struck out Bobby Dalbec with two on and two out in the second.
Things seriously threatened to go off the rails in the third. After an infield hit and Skubal’s only walk of the game, he threw a pickoff attempt to second base into center field — runners at second and third and one out.
Undaunted, he struck out Martinez, looking at a 3-2 heater, and then center fielder Derek Hill ran down a drive in the right-center gap by Xander Bogaerts.
After stranding a runner at second in the fifth — again getting Rafael Devers and Martinez to do so — Skubal was at 90 pitches and finished for the day.
The Tigers bullpen continued its stingy ways. After Kyle Funkhouser and Ian Krol put up zeroes, the bullpen's scoreless innings streak was at 23, the most since 2011. The Red Sox scratched across a run in the eighth off Erasmo Ramirez to bring that to an end.
As for Cabrera, the counter got a day off. He walked once in five trips to the plate. He will take 498 home runs and 2,945 hits into Cleveland Friday night.
