Detroit native Hunter Brown outdueled Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on Friday night in Houston. Brown tossed seven shutout innings to lead the Astros to a 4-0 victory over the Tigers at Minute Maid Park. The Tigers (33-36) and Astros (32-38) play twice more this weekend.
Skubal hadn’t allowed a hit since the first pitch of the game when his smooth sailing ended abruptly in the sixth inning. Jose Altuve doubled; Alex Bregman tripled; and Yordan Alvarez drove Bregman home with a sacrifice fly. Then Yainer Diaz singled and Mauricio Dubon clobbered a two-run homer.
All this happened in the blink of an eye, as the Astros were incredibly aggressive from the jump, putting the ball in play on the first or second pitch in half their plate appearances against Skubal. “Their plan was pretty obvious. They were going to ambush early, which is an advantage for Tarik in a lot of outs tonight.
But the third time through (the batting order) they scored four runs in about 12 pitches. That’s really hard to do,” said Tigers manager A.J.
Hinch. Brown, who went to high school in St. Clair Shores and was a standout at Wayne State, struck out nine without issuing a walk.
The Tigers’ best chance to score ended in comedic fashion in the second inning. Shortstop Ryan Kreidler hit a ball that bounded over the head of right fielder Chas McCormick and looked like a certain triple. But Kreidler settled for a double after making an uncertain pause between first and second.
Replays soon showed th.
