DETROIT (AP) — Victor Reyes tripled twice and drove in three runs, Tarik Skubal pitched five scoreless innings, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox 8-1 on Thursday.
Skubal (7-10) allowed five hits and struck out four. He had surrendered six home runs in 10 2/3 innings during his last two starts.
“I wanted to attack these guys, especially up in the zone with the fastball and then just keep them off-balance with everything else,” Skubal said. “They’re a really good fastball hitting team, especially in fastball counts.”
Robbie Grossman hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. He departed the game prior to the third with a bruised left elbow after getting hit by a pitch.
Jonathan Schoop contributed two hits and two RBIs for Detroit. Miguel Cabrera went 0-for-4 with a walk and remained two homers shy of 500.
Detroit took two of three from Boston.
“This is a good team across the way and we held our own,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re still fighting to win every game. We don’t put any more pressure on ourselves whether we’re playing a winning team or a team under .500.”
The Red Sox lost for the sixth time in seven games and dropped 1 1/2 games behind idle Tampa Bay in the AL East.
“We didn’t pitch. We didn’t play good defense. We didn’t hit,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It wasn’t a good effort today. Where we’re at right now, we’ve got to get better. That’s the bottom line.”
Boston starter Martin Perez (7-8) equaled his shortest outing of the season, allowing three runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings. Alex Verdugo had two hits and drove in the lone Red Sox run.
“I know we’re in August and it’s a grind but we have a good opportunity to play in October,” Cora said. “We’ve put ourselves in this situation. People can doubt us (but) ... we have a good baseball team and we know we can do it.”
Grossman blasted an 0-2 pitch for his 17th home run.
Detroit extended its lead to 3-0 in the third. Reyes led off with a triple and scored on Zack Short’s sacrifice fly. Schoop added a bases-loaded groundout.
Jeimer Candelario’s RBI ground-rule double and Reyes’ two-run triple in the fifth gave the Tigers a 6-0 advantage.
NOTABLE
Reyes is the first major leaguer to hit a triple from both sides of the plate in the game since Detroit’s Dmitri Young at Baltimore on May 6, 2003.
ROSTER MOVE
Red Sox: OF Delino DeShields Jr. was acquired from Texas for cash and assigned to Triple-A Worcester. He was batting .263 with five home runs and 16 stolen bases in 66 games with Triple-A Round Rock this season. DeShields has appeared in 576 major league games.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (9-6, 3.71 ERA) will start the opener of a four-game series at Toronto on Friday. Eovaldi will be seeking his first victory since July 1. He held the Blue Jays scoreless in 6 2/3 innings on June 14.
Tigers: RHP Matt Manning (2-4, 5.59 ERA) will start the opener of a three-game series at Cleveland on Friday. Manning was rocked for nine runs in 3 2/3 innings at Cleveland on June 28.
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