Tarik Skubal tossed seven innings of four-hit ball and Kerry Carpenter homered to pace the visiting Detroit Tigers to a 9-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.
Staked to a 9-0 lead, Skubal (2-2) retired the first 12 hitters before Rhys Hoskins’ lead-off single in the fifth. Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, struck out nine and walked none in a 91-pitch outing.
It was the second straight scoreless outing for Skubal, who lost his first two starts. In his previous start, Skubal tossed six shutout innings in a 5-0 win over the Yankees.
Joey Ortiz had an RBI single with two outs in the ninth off Kenta Maeda for the Brewers’ only run.
Detroit capitalized on shoddy defense for eight runs, including four unearned, off Tyler Alexander (1-1) in four innings as the Brewers dropped their third straight.
The Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the first on a walk and RBI doubles by Andy Ibanez and Dillon Dingler.
Detroit made it 4-0 with a pair of unearned runs in the second. Javier Baez walked and shortstop Ortiz mishandled Ryan Kreidler’s possible double-play bouncer. Justyn-Henry Malloy drove in one with an RBI single and Gleyber Torres added a run-scoring ground out.
The Tigers added four runs in the fourth, including two more unearned. Baez singled behind the bag at third. Kreidler then reached on a two-base throwing error by Alexander on an attempted sacrifice bunt. Malloy walked to load the bases and Torres followed with a two-run single to make it 6-0. Ibanez added an RBI single and Spencer Torkelson a sacrifice fly.
Carpenter greeted reliever Elvin Rodriguez with his fifth homer to open the fifth inning.
The Brewers had the bases loaded with two outs in the sixth, but Skubal fanned Hoskings to end the inning.
