Tigers win pitchers' duel against Astros on bases-loaded walk

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Aug 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — A pitchers' duel was expected. A scoreless game after nine innings? That seemed unlikely.

But there were the Tigers and Astros, playing in the 10th inning Tuesday night with nary a run on the board.

Somebody had to score at some point, right?

And when Will Vest exalted off the mound after stranding the free runner at second base in the top of the 10th inning, the stage was set for a Tigers' walk off.

Against right-hander Kaleb Ort, Andy Ibanez's fly ball to the track in right field advanced free runner Wenceel Perez to third base. An intentional walk to Dillon Dingler and an unintentional walk to Jahmai Jones set up Gleyber Torres with two outs.

Walks are contagious. Torres literally walked it off, his bases-loaded walk giving the Tigers a 1-0 win over the Astros.

But the main event did not disappoint.

Two elite pitchers, both legitimate Cy Young Award candidates in the American League, put on a pitcher clinic Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal and Houston’s Hunter Brown worked in and out of trouble for 13 combined innings and neither conceded a run.

Impressive stuff.

Skubal allowed only three hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out 10, finishing his night retiring the last nine Astros hitters he faced, hitting 99 mph with his 94th and next to last pitch of the outing.

His last pitch was a 94-mph slider to strike out Ramon Urias, his 200th strikeout of the year. He’s the first pitcher in baseball to hit the 200-strikeout mark this season.

Brown, the Wayne State University product, gave up five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in six innings.

And the game stayed scoreless.

Kyle Finnegan pitched a clean eighth inning and Vest dispatched the top of the Astros' batting order, getting Jeremy Pena to ground out and then after a single by Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve bounced into a 6-4-3 double-play.

But for seven innings, this was a pitching masterclass.

Skubal got a boost from his defense in the top of the fourth inning. With two outs, he gave up a single to Yainer Diaz. Urias followed, lining a ball into the right-field corner.

Kerry Carpenter hustled to the ball and made quick, strong throw to Torres, who cut the ball and fired a strike to catcher Dingler. Diaz was called out at home plate on an extremely close play.

The Astros challenged but the call was confirmed. Dingler was able to tag Diaz before his hand touched the plate.

Skubal dodged a bullet in the second inning, too. Christian Walker ambushed a first-pitch fastball and drove it 417 feet to center. The ball would’ve landed in the shrubs had center fielder Perez not tracked it, timed his leap perfectly and snared the ball above the wall.

But he was untouchable after the fourth. Against an all right-handed lineup, he worked his four-seam fastball and sinker to both sides of the plate and got his usual swing-and-miss with his change-up (12 on 20 swings).

What was different, though, was his slider usage. He mixed in 11 of them, throwing it between 89 and 94 mph. He got three swing-and-miss punchouts with it.

Brown had to work through some stress early in the game, too.

The Tigers had runners on base in each of the first four innings. But Brown kept winning the big battles. He got Spencer Torkelson to rollover a 3-1 pitch with two on and two out in the first.

Perez led off the second inning and was thrown out attempting to steal.

In the third, Trey Sweeney singled and went to third on a Torres’ second hit of the game. With one out, Carpenter hit a line drive right at first baseman Walker, who easily doubled up Torres.

A leadoff walk to Riley Greene in the fourth was quickly erased by a double-play grounder by Torkelson.

Wait, there’s more. Zach McKinstry led off the fifth with a triple to left-center. But Brown got Dingler to bounce out to third, rolling over on a 2-0 curveball, and he struck out Sweeney after a six-pitch at-bat. Colt Keith, who struck out in his two previous at-bats, chasing pitches well out of the zone, worked a six-pitch walk.

Torres, though, after ripping two singles to right field, flew out to center on the first pitch to end the inning.