Fantasy Baseball Forecaster: Team Hitting Ratings
CINCINNATI -- — Tarik Skubal struck out a career-high 13 in seven innings, Zach McKinstry hit a two-run homer and the Detroit Tigers swept a series for the first time since late May, beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-1 on Sunday afternoon.
Skubal (10-3) was sharp, mixing a fastball in the upper-90s with a changeup to keep Reds hitters on their heels. He allowed just three hits and walked no one. Cincinnati's only run came on a seventh-inning groundout.
After the Tigers relied on relievers for the entire game Saturday, Skubal said he went out with the goal of eating up as many innings as he could.
“Obviously, the strikeouts happen, and that’s a cool thing, but I’m more proud of the seven (innings) and the sweep,” Skubal said.
“(Jake Rogers) called a good game, I was able to execute and continue to go after these guys knowing that I had to pitch deep into the game,” he said.
McKinstry drove in Detroit's first run with a base hit in the fourth inning off Reds starter Graham Ashcraft (5-5) before his two-run blast to right field in the eighth off Alexis Diaz, the usually reliable Cincinnati closer.
Colt Keith had two hits and an RBI, and Gio Urshela had three hits for the Tigers.
Ashcraft allowed a run and six hits with two strikeouts and three walks through 4 2/3 innings.
Detroit beat the Reds 5-4 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday.
The Tigers hadn't recorded a series sweep since they took three from Kansas City May 20-22.
“We’ve been away from home a long time and played a lot of different games,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “But the last three have been really fun and pretty clean and pretty well-rounded from the group. Pretty much everybody’s contributed in the last couple of games, and it's fun to win.”
The Reds came off a sweep of the Yankees in New York earlier this week only to lose three straight to a sub-.500 team at home.
“It was a tough weekend for us, no doubt about it,” Reds manager David Bell said. “So now we regorup and figure out how to get going again as quick as we can.”
TRAINER'S ROOM
Reds: Put OF list Nick Martini (left thumb injury) on the 10-day injury list and recalled INF Livan Soto from AAA-Louisville. OF Stuart Fairchild was not available Sunday due to a back injury.
Tigers: CF Parker Meadows injured his leg when was caught stealing in the eighth inning. “I don’t love what I heard from him and our trainer from the get-go, so we'll get him evaluated,” Hinch said. “It’s something with the hamstring, so that’s always alarming.”
UP NEXT
Tigers: Return home for a four-game series with the Cleveland Guardians. They'll send right-hander Gavin Williams (0-1, 11.25 ERA) against Guardians right-hander Keider Montero (1-2, 6.60) on Monday night.
Reds: Host Colorado for a four-game set starting Monday, when lefty Andrew Abbott (8-6, 3.28) is scheduled to start against a Rockies pitcher still to be determined.
------
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
L L L L F576db 46aa2809a01c4fa79ac14a238d30c747~mv2 O L O RawImage Acf837324edd68b9d38d84e1c5c0e2d9 O Z695XT6QC7QQEwQ 6yuDw6gIKCenUvIGDWmFYfwO85MbgTOOa122DHl4V51lJnKq76sf05 E1pw 3SnjXqOz5s27qe2zPO6LM6Ep U4PJuvBhj7w=w1200 H630 P K No NuAF1QipM93ePbwFfYTveLk64XfSuWajLOH0UZRT3Rgv22=s1024L 4 Medford Hair Salon O L O RawImage Maxresdefault ?media Id=100038930845837L RawImage 447061scr 7ba789dcf340b10 850x567 1920w 300s PUr VxO YCCKcNkYhXGSwj Xn9BxJA YX G0eCh8E6WfhmlK5adRoGqBtP NYVTqLIADIflSpp0sXw0l=w768 H768 N O V1L ?media Id=1238585469517752L Milford Oh Hair Salon Cropped.H0PWVjrl62 Image5 350x350 ?media Id=100054517297906Image10 350x350 ?media Id=100026539637642Image20 350x350