HOUSTON – Tarik Skubal continued his stellar season with a sensational playoff debut and the Detroit Tigers got to Framber Valdez early in a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros in their American League Wild Card Series opener Tuesday.

The Tigers, who swept the AL Division Series during their last trip to the playoffs in 2014, earned their first postseason victory since Game 4 of the 2013 AL Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox.

Trailing 3-0 entering the ninth, Houston scored on Yainer Diaz’s RBI single and had the bases loaded when Jason Heyward hit a game-ending lineout against Beau Brieske.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Wednesday in Houston.

Skubal, the AL-pitching Triple Crown winner, gave up just four hits and walked one in six innings. About the Astros’ only hard hit besides him was one that hit him: The southpaw was hit on the right wrist by Diaz’s line drive in the second inning.

He became the first pitching Triple Crown winner to win his first postseason start in the same season since Sandy Koufax threw a complete game of 15 strikeouts in a 5–2 victory in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series at Yankee Stadium .

“It was a good challenge,” Skubal said. “It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. It’s probably the most nervous I’ve been since my debut. That was fun to experience too. What a game. It was fun, happy to take it to to come out is a victory.”

Yordan Alvarez, playing for the first time since spraining his right knee on September 22, doubled off Jason Foley to start the ninth inning. Pinch runner Zach Dezenzo advanced to third on Alex Bregman’s infield single and Diaz singled on a grounder to right.

Jeremy Pena sacrificed, Brieske replaced and Victor Caratini flied out to short left. Chas McCormick walked to load the bases, but Brieske retired Heyward for the save.

The AL West champions were hurt by yet another playoff flop from Valdez, who went 0-3 in last year’s postseason. Houston’s ace ranked third in the AL with a 2.91 ERA in the regular season, but gave up three runs and seven hits in just 4⅓ innings on Tuesday.

“Skubal has been really good all year,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We had a couple of opportunities there in the middle of the game, but we couldn’t capitalize on them. But credit to him. He made pitches. And we fought until the end. We had a shot there in the ninth, and it just worked.” not get a big hit.”

Detroit jumped him in the second. Wenceel Perez singled with one out, before Spencer Torkelson walked and Parker Meadows grounded into a force out, leaving runners at the corners.

Jake Rogers, Trey Sweeney and Matt Vierling then hit consecutive RBI singles for a 3-0 lead.

The Tigers had a runner on third base with two outs in the third when Peña made a diving catch at shortstop off Torkelson’s liner.

It was a return to Houston for Detroit manager AJ Hinch, who led the Astros to a championship in 2017 and last won a postseason game in the Astros’ loss in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series.

The following January, he was suspended for a year by Major League Baseball and fired the same day for his role in Houston’s sign-stealing scandal.

He joined the Tigers after his suspension ended and guided the team back to the postseason with a 31-13 finish to the regular season.

Hinch improved to 5-0 in postseason openers in his managerial career, the second-most wins without a loss in postseason history, trailing only Earl Weaver by 6-0.

The Astros had won an MLB-record 10 consecutive postseason openers in the postseason for a franchise-record eighth straight season. They played their 98th postseason game since 2017.

This report uses information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press.