Cleveland – Jake Rogers is lying on his back, face down, at home plate. If this were a crime scene, he would have been outlined in chalk.
It was a crime scene of sorts.
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The Tigers catcher turned a 261-foot bloop into shallow center field into a two-run home run, essentially stealing home, that helped launch an 8-2 victory over the Central Division-leading Cleveland Guardians in the first of four games at Progressive Field on Monday night.
“It was awesome,” said Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, who improved to 11-3 and lowered his ERA to 2.34 with seven gutsy innings. “Having him safe was even better. And then the starfish across the plate. Awesome.”
Rookie Justyn-Henry Malloy got the Tigers started with a two-run home run in the first inning off veteran right-hander Carlos Carrasco. It was his seventh home run, his fourth this month.
Rogers then came to bat with Wenceel Perez on third and two outs in the second. Center fielder Angel Martinez tried to dive for his sinking softball. The ball went past him and, once he ran at it, he slipped and fell and had to shovel the ball to right fielder Jhonkensy Noel.
“I knew it was going to be a triple because his back was turned,” Rogers said. “I was digging and I looked up and Joey was going crazy.”
Third base coach Joey Cora wasn’t going to let Rogers stop at third base. Noel quickly threw the ball and shortstop Brayan Rocchio threw hard to the plate. The ball beat Rogers, but somehow, sliding headfirst with his arms outstretched, he escaped contact.
“I gave it everything I had,” Rogers said. “I was running, as the boys like to say when I’m running. As soon as I slipped, I knew I was safe. I didn’t feel him touch me. When they looked at it, I started to get worried. I was pretty sure I had scored. I tried to get out of the way as best I could.”
The Guardians challenged the security decision, but it was upheld. The image of Rogers lying face down at home plate was priceless.
“I told the coaches we had to put an oxygen mask on him,” Skubal said. “He went down the tunnel and I had the ventilator on him. I told him, ‘Brother, you have to breathe.’”
The play was scored by a triple and an error was called by Martinez, which Rogers disputes.
“I have to appeal,” he said. “I didn’t see the play but I asked and I guess (Martinez) fell and the right fielder threw the ball. I don’t know if falling is a mistake. It’s a home run to me.”
But what mattered was that the Tigers had given Skubal a four-point lead.
“Scoring four runs in the first two innings, I can go after them right away,” Skubal said. “I’m just trying to keep the ball in the field. It’s hard to score a lot of runs from one position to the other.”
Skubal, despite having to work off the rust after not starting since July 12 and allowing a career-high 10 hits, never let the Guardians get into the game.
“They’re a good team,” Skubal said. “They have 59 wins for a reason. They don’t throw a lot of strikes. They put the ball in play and they make things happen when they put guys in scoring position. It was my job to try to get them to hit guys at times and I think I did a good job.”
Scoreboard: Tigers 8, Guardians 2
Eating all seven innings was vital for the Tigers, who played bullpen games Tuesday and Thursday in this series.
“They had a good plan against him, one through nine,” Rogers said. “They really did it. But even when you have a good plan, it’s hard to string together a lot of hits and Skub did a really good job of getting soft contact and a double play when he needed it.”
The Guardians appeared to have Skubal’s changeup in trouble in some accounts. He had seven whiffs on 14 swings with it, but they also had an average exit velocity of 92 mph on the six they put in play.
“They were going to take what they gave him,” manager AJ Hinch said. “If you look at the hits that Tyler Freeman had (three of them), the hits that (Jose) Ramirez had, both to right and right-center, they made a collective commitment to not take the ball away from him and allow him to use his changeup.
“It was the best approach against Tarik that I’ve seen this year.”
Skubal struck out six batters, which is below his norm, and walked 15 batters on 54 swings, which is also below his norm. But he won the big at-bats. He induced a 1-4-3 double play to end the third inning, throwing out two runners. He struck out Kwan to throw out two in the fourth inning. He pitched around a Martinez double in the fifth inning, striking out Jose Ramirez on three pitches.
The lone run scored on a two-out, bases-loaded bunt by catcher Austin Hedges in a slog of a second inning that cost Skubal 28 pitches. But even in that inning, he was able to rally from a 2-0 deficit against Steven Kwan and get him out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
“I put myself in danger and when he got out, I felt like I had a little momentum from there and was able to hold them to one run,” Skubal said. “But it was exhausting. Ten hits. I felt like every inning I was working outside the straight line. But that’s where the most important pitches are thrown, outside the straight line.”
Matt Vierling (two doubles) and Mark Canha each had three hits. Canha and Perez (two hits) hit back-to-back doubles to score a run and chase Carrasco in the sixth inning. Perez, who advanced to third on a throw to the plate, scored the sixth run on one of Gio Urshela’s two sacrifices.
Rookie Colt Keith, who hit the ball hard three times without showing anything, hit his 10th home run of the season in the ninth.
The Tigers (50-51) have won four of the last five games against the Guardians. They also have the best record in baseball in July (12-5).
“It’s team baseball,” Skubal said. “We do everything, we play good defense, we have timely offense and we pitch well. That speaks to the guys in this room. A lot of guys believe in winning every day. And we look forward to doing it again tomorrow.”
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
