'He didn't back down': Skubal (8 K's) doesn't let 1st career balk rattle him

ST. LOUIS -- Even Cy Young Award winners can experience career firsts. Tarik Skubal experienced a rather frustrating first on Tuesday.

Skubal was called for his first career balk in the bottom of the sixth inning against the Cardinals. The call with Willson Contreras at the plate allowed Masyn Winn, who led off with an infield single, to advance to second. Winn eventually scored on an Iván Herrera single that ended the Tigers ace’s night.

Skubal attributed the call, made by second-base umpire Bill Miller, to the pitch clock rules.

“What confused me was [Contreras] looked at me like he was ready to hit, and then put his head back down, and then I started coming set,” Skubal said. “So I just thought they were going to do that little let-him-look-at-you thing, but he looked twice at me, so I don't really understand. I mean, it is what it is, whatever. I mean, technically it is a balk, but with the pitch clock rules, and you have to look at him, and you have all the seconds, it's a bunch of stupid stuff that happens.”

Catcher Jake Rogers said the balk was called late, adding to some of the frustration.

“He called it, like it had to have been 20 seconds after he did it, which is why I was like, 'Why?'” Rogers said. “But again, he did balk.”

While the call didn’t go Detroit's way, Riley Greene made sure the game did. Greene’s RBI double in the ninth scored off Kyle Leahy scored Zach McKinstry to break a 4-all tie, and the Tigers went on to a 5-4 win that evened the three-game series at Busch Stadium.

Leahy entered the game holding lefties to just a .114 average this season before Greene’s hit.

“That's fun right there,” Greene said. “Tie ballgame, you've got a chance to win it or to go ahead, that's fun and that's why we play.”

Greene finished 3-for-4 with a homer and drove in four for the Tigers. He has hit safely in nine of his past 10 games and seven of eight career games against St. Louis.

“[Greene is] literally the hardest guy to give a day off to on our team,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He always seems to come up with big games and big moments. And he and Z-Mac today teamed up in the middle of the order to handle their at-bats really well and put us in a position to score just enough. So, Riley Greene, I mean, who doesn't want him up to bat?”

The balk was a tough way to end what had the makings of a strong outing.

Skubal dominated the early innings, hitting 100 mph with his four-seam fastball and his sinker. He struck out eight and threw 66 of his 94 pitches for strikes.

“What I have in control is the ball in my hand and trying to execute a pitch,” Skubal said. “At the end of the day, that's all I really have control of. And I thought I did a good job of that today, just trying to execute pitch after pitch, regardless of result or kind of what was going on.”

But the Cardinals' hitters worked several long counts to get Skubal’s pitch count up. He finally ran into trouble in the fifth after Nolan Arenado followed Herrera’s leadoff single with a two-run homer to cut the Tigers’ lead to 4-2.

“He's just really good at competing, and he had to today. They didn't let him off the hook very often,” Hinch said. “Even their at-bats where he found some punchouts, they were long. So if anything, the best thing he did today was staying committed and staying aggressive. And even when they put a couple of bats in a row together that went for them, he didn't back down.”

After Winn’s run in the sixth, the Cardinals tied it in the seventh when Victor Scott II scored on a Winn sacrifice fly.

Detroit wasted no time jumping on Cardinals starter Erick Fedde.

Kerry Carpenter hammered the fourth pitch of the game a Statcast-projected 412 feet over the right-field wall. McKinstry doubled and scored on a Greene hit to give the Tigers a quick 2-0 lead. All three hits in the first inning had exit velocities of more than 100 mph.

Greene jumped on the first pitch he saw in the third for a majestic homer that hit the right-field foul pole. The two-run blast made it 4-0.

“A good win all-around,” Rogers said. “That was a great game by both sides.”