The Tigers survive the 9th inning scare and beat Houston 3-1

Detroit Tigers star Tarik Skubal pitched six shutout innings as the Tigers defeated the Houston Astros 3-1 to win game one of their American League Wild Card Series.

Skubal struck out six, allowed four hits and a walk in the game, shutting down the Astros’ offense. Then Will Vest came into the game to pitch the next 1 2/3 innings, where he had four strikeouts and didn’t give up a single hit.

Detroit had a great second inning as they gave up three runs against Framber Valdez with two outs on a Perez single, Spencer Torkelson walk and the Parker Meadows fielder’s choice. Then Jake Rogers hit a single to center that scored Perez and moved Meadows to second.

Trey Sweeney then singled, followed by Matt Vierling to score two more runs.

The bullpen held strong until the ninth when Jason Foley came in for the Tigers to end the game. Yordan Alvarez hit a double off the left field wall to start the ninth inning. Alex Bregman hit a single and senior pinch runner Zach Dezenzo reached third.

After a foul-tip strikeout by Yainer Diaz was rejected after the ball hit the dirt, he hit a single to right field, cutting the lead to 3-1 with no outs and two men on base. Jeremy Pena laid down a sacrifice bunt that put the Men on second and third with one out.

Manager AJ Hinch brought in Beau Brieske against Victor Caratini, who flied out to left field. Brieske then walked Chas McCormick and left the bases with two outs, but a line out initially ended the game with a win for the Tigers.

Detroit is now just one win away from advancing to the American League Divisional Series, where they would face the Cleveland Guardians.

You can watch game two of the Wild Card on Wednesday from 2:30 p.m. on Channel 7