The Detroit Tigers took on a freefalling LA Angels team tonight. After a disappointing set against the Minnesota Twins, Detroit looked to bounce back behind their staff ace and Cy Young favorite, Tarik Skubal. He would take on Kyle Hendricks, the veteran righty who toyed with Tigers hitters on their west coast road trip back in Tigers getright expedition started off with a whimper. Both teams went 123 in their first inning; Skubal started with a revengeK of Zach Neto on three pitches. Hendricks then struck out the side, and it seemed like the fans were in for either a very short baseball game that felt very the second, LA squeaked out a run. A swinging bunt single on an 02 fastball and a wild pitch put Luis Rengifo in scoring position with two outs. The powerfirst catcher Logan Ooppe slugged a double into the left field corner for a 10 lead, and just like that, Detroit was playing from behind again. Rookie second baseman Christian Moore, of the 2024 draft, struck out to end the Torkelson promptly returned serve and deposited a hanging changeup over the left field wall for a tie game. Riley Greene finally got ahead in the count and did something with it, slashing a 10 changeup for a single to right. Zach McKinstry doubled him to third, and then Javy Baez blooped a twoout single to left for 2 more runs; 31 Tigers after top of the third rolled around and Skubal was dealing, as Skubal is wont to do. Two strikeouts and a groundout had him out of the inning. The rookie Bryce Teodosio battled for 10 pitches before going down swinging, pushing Skubal pitch count to 19 for the bottom started with a tremendous catch in CF by the same Teodosio to put away Gleyber Torres. He did trip into the wall, but after a brief concussion check, stayed in the game. Kerry Carpenter and Torkelson went quietly from ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth inning. Mike Trout struck out Reese Olson Jersey, but Taylor Ward walked and Jo Adell singled to put two on with one out. Rengifo, the villain of the second, popped out to left and boy did he let the crowd at home know he just got under it. Cover ears on replays, if you are so inclined. Dingler then took matters into his own hands, picked off Ward at second to end the toughing it out for an inning or two, Teodosio came out of the game. Hopefully that all precautionary and he comes back quickly. Greene looped a single to left field as he continued to get back on track. Maybe it coincidence, maybe it not batting cleanup, who knows. We need him. Two quick outs followed to strand the fifth, Skubal continued to look shakier than wee used to seeing. A oneout walk, his second of the evening, and a twostrike single put two on for the defensive replacement, Gustavo Campero. In a 31 count, Skubal grooved a fastball up. It landed 388 feet from home plate to tie the ballgame. A near identical fastball to Neto never came back either, getting launched a whopping 421 feet away for a 43 Angels lead. An infield single to Trout ended Skubal night, marking the worst start of his season by far. Troy Melton was tasked with the unenviable task of leverage long relief. Ward whiffed at high heat to end it, but the damage was done and the Tigers were down. Down Zach McKinstry Jersey, but hopefully not theme of the night, outside the second, continued with two quick outs. Baez and Colt Keith both popped up, totaling four pitches, and somehow Hendricks had 55 pitches with 2 outs in the fifth. Wow. Torres then struck out on 8 pitches, and the only positive was that LA bullpen was warming despite his low pitch count and low stress throughout the returned for the sixth and had a very quiet inning. A pop out and two groundballs ended things in just 14 pitches. He put the fastball in and around the zone and it played well; once he settles into locating his breaking ball for low strikes, put the league on thankfully left the game for lefty Brock Burke, although with how the inning went, thankfully might not have been the right word. Pulling an arm with 63 pitches through 5 innings is always an interesting decision, but it worked for the sixth. A can of corn to center field, a grounder to the pitcher, and a line out to right wrapped a 123 inning for Detroit greeted Melton rudely with a line drive single to right field. Melton responded by carving up Campero; sliders down and fastballs up, folks. Neto then lashed a hard liner into the left field corner, but Greene came out of nowhere for a fullextension diving grab to save a stayed in to get Greene out, then left for the righthanded Luis Garcia. His job was to get Dingler. McKinstry and Baez out; it worked. Dingler tucked one past the first baseman for a oneout single. After a wild pitch and a grounder to second, he was at third with two outs, but Baez whiffed at a slider far out of the zone to strand a long break, Melton came back. Greene made another diving play in left. Jo Adell then ambushed a firstpinch sinker and launched a homer over the right center wall for a 2run lead. It was initially ruled a double, but replay pretty quickly showed it cleared the fence and bounced back in. Melton finished with a grounder to short to end the inning with Detroit down lefty, this one Reid Detmers, came in for LA bullpen Alex Cobb Jersey, and AJ unloaded his bench. Jahmai Jones came in for Keith and led off with a walk. Torres walked too, bringing Matt Vierling to the plate as the goahead run. In the surprise of the season so far, Vierling launched a 31 fastball for a 3run bomb, giving Detroit the lead! A Torkelson strikeout later and Detmers was out, old friend Andrew Chafin was in. Perez walked, but after some antics at first base, Chafin caught Perez leaning and picked him off cleanly. Greene then struck out and we had to hope Kyle Finnegan could hold the slimmest of comes easy for Detroit these days; a hanging splitter was launched down the left field line. It had the distance, but despite being clearly foul, LA challenged just in case; the foul call was thankfully confirmed. Finnegan wasn phased, though; Ooppe swung through a perfect high fastball for the first out. Then, Moore whiffed on a splitter down for Finnegan second K. A grounder to second from the pinchhitting Yoan Moncada wrapped the comefrombehind win for the hometown heroes.