Riding the wave of an improbable September surge that secured the franchise’s first postseason berth in a decade, the Detroit Tigers scored another memorable victory on Tuesday, with a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series. .

The Tigers, with a roster full of rookies who barely knew what it meant to be playing at this point in the calendar, appeared to be substantial underdogs when they arrived in Houston to face a team that has become synonymous with baseball in the postseason. But in this laughably lopsided matchup in terms of experience in October, top left-hander Tarik Skubal proved to be the ultimate equalizer for Detroit.

Houston’s roster not only had more playoff experience — the Astros’ wild-card roster includes a whopping 581 combined career postseason games, compared to just 12 in Detroit’s — but also a far more compelling collection of statistical highlights on both sides of the ball. . On paper, the Astros had almost all the advantages, with one notable exception: Skubal. And so it was up to the 27-year-old southpaw to deliver the goods in his first career playoff start.

And he did. Skubal sliced ​​and diced through some of the best bats in the AL with exceptional command of his jaw-dropping four-pitch mix, single-handedly taking Detroit to the finish line of victory with each passing frame.

In a dominant performance, Tarik Skubal took an early 3-0 lead

This was exactly what it was supposed to look like for the Tigers: their unrivaled asset living up to the hype when the team needed him most. And after Skubal quickly dispatched the top of Houston’s order on just five pitches in the bottom of the first, the Tigers’ bats came alive in the top of the second. Astros starter Framber Valdez was great in the second half of the regular season, making his 16th career playoff start, but his command looked shaky from the start on Tuesday and the Tigers struck.

Jake Rogers — a .197 hitter in the regular season who earned the Tigers’ starting catcher job thanks to his strength on defense — struck first. On a 3-0 pitch with runners on the corners, the Tigers’ backstop opted not to wait to see if a struggling Valdez would walk him, instead taking matters into his own hands with a single up the middle to give Detroit a 1-0. 0 lead. Remarkably, the 29-year-old Rogers is Detroit’s longest-tenured player, having made his MLB debut in 2019 just two years after the Tigers acquired him from – that’s right – Houston as part of the blockbuster deal for Justin Verlander at the 2017 competition. trading term.

Next came Trey Sweeney. The rookie shortstop jumped on a 1-0 sinker by Valdez to score another run. For all the talk about Detroit being sellers in July, here was a Tigers player bought in the deal that sent Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers, making an immediate impact in a postseason game.

Then it was Matt Vierling’s turn. As the only player on Detroit’s roster with postseason experience, Vierling had some familiarity with Valdez, having faced him in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series with Philadelphia. He made a two-play switch to center field to make it 3-0 for Detroit.

An early three-point lead in Houston against this Astros lineup isn’t a particularly comfortable cushion under most circumstances. But with Skubal on the mound, Detroit appeared to be firmly in control.

During his masterful performance, there were not many moments of concern for the left-handed top player. A comebacker off the bat of Yainer Diaz in the second carom hit Skubal’s glove hand, but he was able to recover and record the clean sheet, quickly reassuring his manager that he had nothing to worry about before calmly completing the rest of the frame.

The Astros then made Skubal sweat with traffic on the bases during a 29-pitch fourth inning, but he responded emphatically with strikeouts of Jeremy Peña and Victor Caratini, both with his dastardly changeup. He appeared to arch his back on a 100-mph fastball against Alex Bregman in the sixth, but Skubal once again sent Hinch and head athletic trainer Ryne Eubanks back to the dugout before striking out Diaz on a 90-mph heater to make it frame to end.

“He’s intense, but he’s under control,” Hinch said afterwards. “He’s competitive, but he’s a thinking man’s pitcher. He has weapons. He is the complete package of a guy you want to anchor a staff.”

That fastball to send Diaz back to the dugout turned out to be Skubal’s last pitch of the day — Hinch revealed after the game that Skubal was dealing with cramps — and Hinch called in his bullpen to cover the final three frames. Skubal’s final line in his first career playoff start is a fitting follow-up to an outstanding regular season that will soon earn him the AL Cy Young Award: six innings, four hits allowed, one walk and six strikeouts. Of his 88 pitches, a whopping 73% went to strikes.

“You see him shouting from the mound, no matter how competitive he is,” Hinch continued. “We see that every day, and I’m glad the baseball world gets to see that on the biggest stage of the year yet because it’s authentic and has a real impact on our club.”

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The dramatic 9th inning gave the Astros hope

With several notable options at Hinch’s disposal, it wasn’t immediately clear in what order Detroit’s top utility weapons would be deployed over the final three innings. Will Vest came out first and was brilliant. He struck out four of the five batters he faced and left Detroit with just five outs left when he departed in the eighth in favor of Tyler Holton. Lefty Holton got Kyle Tucker to ground out to end the eighth inning, setting the stage for Jason Foley to end the ninth inning with the three-run lead still intact.

Then the plan started to fail. Yordan Alvarez, even in his hobbled form while still nursing a knee sprain, led off with a booming double to left field, another startling reminder of his spectacular opposite-field power. Bregman followed with an infield single, then Diaz singled to right to score Houston’s first run of the game. The Astros had life and the volume at Minute Maid Park started to grow.

After a Peña bunt that put Bregman and Diaz in scoring position, Foley left. Righty Beau Brieske came in for another playoff debut for Detroit. A former 26th-round draft pick, Brieske has played numerous roles for the Tigers this season, including 12 games as an opener. He had to finish this game.

Caratini hit a shallow line drive to left field for the second out. With one out remaining, Brieske turned up the heat against Chas McCormick in an attempt to slam the door shut, but to no avail. McCormick committed an error on two 100.1 mph heaters (the two toughest pitches of Brieske’s career) and drew a walk to load the bases for Jason Heyward.

Heyward, a late-August signing for Houston after his release from the Dodgers, has made some big changes for the Astros in the weeks since he joined the club. And for a split second it seemed as if he had delivered another. But in the blink of an eye, the line drive that Heyward ripped to the right side arrived into the glove of first baseman Spencer Torkelson for the third out, and the game was over.

After sailing smoothly with Skubal for six innings, things got a little tricky at the end. But as they have done so many times over the last six weeks, the Tigers found a way to win.

Game 2 includes pitching chaos for Tigers and a must-win for Astros

For Houston, Tuesday marked a sixth consecutive home postseason loss, dating back to dropping all four of the Astros’ games against Texas in last year’s ALCS and Game 3 of the ALDS against Minnesota. It’s a troubling trend that will need to be reversed on Wednesday if the Astros want to extend their season by one more day — not to mention keep alive the dream of reaching the ALCS for the eighth straight time.

In Game 2, the Astros will hand the ball to Hunter Brown, the breakout right-hander with a 2.32 ERA over his past 13 entering October – a great option considering the stakes. As for the Tigers? The expectation is that it will be Holton – yes, the same pitcher who faced Tucker in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game. Because of course it will be!

Hinch is fully aware of the extent to which his team’s pitching strategy deviates from the norm, and he has no problem admitting it. As he joked Monday, the plan for Detroit on the Hill was: “Tomorrow Tarik Skubal and the rest of the way create chaos — and that’s pretty much how it’s been the last two months.”

Skubal did his part; that was the first step. The Tigers having to use their top four bullpen arms to secure Game 1 could complicate how the “chaos” is deployed from here, but that’s a trade-off that Hinch and Co. will have to make. will happily accept. Hinch and his team are just one win away from eliminating his former employer and advancing to the ALDS, where the AL Central rival Guardians await. That next victory will undoubtedly require a healthy dose of mixing and matching on the mound, but as Hinch noted, that’s hardly anything new.

Besides, that’s a Wednesday problem. For now, everything has gone according to plan – something teams can rarely say at this time of year. That’s the luxury of having a pitcher like Skubal by your side.