Detroit Tigers ride dominant Tarik Skubal performance to beat San Francisco Giants, 5-1

The Detroit Tigers had some bonus baseball Monday afternoon as they welcomed the San Francisco Giants to town for a single game to make up for a rainout back in April.

Tarik Skubal seemed to relish the opportunity to bypass an off day.

He dominated for five innings and the Tigers jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 5-1 victory at Comerica Park.

Skubal (1-1, 3.71 ERA) had pitched just four innings in each of his three starts this season after missing the start of the season recovering from flexor tendon surgery. And after struggling in his last start on July 18 in Kansas City — allowing seven earned runs on eight hits and a walk — he gave up no runs, just two hits and struck out nine batters on Monday.

THE CALL TO COOPERSTOWN: John Lowe’s 57-year journey to Baseball Hall of Fame simply ‘outstanding’

“He was dominant, period,” A.J. Hinch said. “That’s as good as he’s been since coming back, whether it’s rehab or even the first couple of outings where we were governing him so much.”

Kerry Carpenter (two hits) drove in two runs and Spencer Torkelson (two hits) added another RBI before Zack Short, subbed in for defensive purposes, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.

Riley Greene was 3-for-4 with a double and scored twice. In his 13 games since returning from the injured list, Greene is hitting .370 (17-for-46) with a .974 on base-plus-slugging percentage.

In total, San Francisco starter Ross Stripling (0-4, 5.77 ERA) gave up three runs on 10 hits in six innings of work.

The Tigers continue their homestand with a three-game series against Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels beginning Tuesday. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m.

Skubal shines

Skubal may have walked away frustrated from the outing against the Royals, but you couldn’t tell on Monday as he dominated the Giants’ batters, throwing 60 strikes among his 82 pitches.

ROSTER MOVES: Alex Faedo sent to Toledo to help ‘fortify the bullpen’ for long stretch

“It felt good,” Skubal said. “I felt like I was on attack mode the whole game, felt like my command got better as the game went on and it was good to adjust from the last one into this one for sure. Last time I lacked aggressiveness with certain pitches in certain counts where you shouldn’t, so just keeping that attack pitch by pitch is probably the biggest adjustment.”

MORE: Scott Rolen credits his parents, Fred McGriff thanks fellow players at Hall of Fame induction

The Tigers are continuing to proceed with caution with Skubal, though Hinch said prior to the game that if it was up to Skubal, he would go as long as he can, but it appears the team wants to take a more cautious approach, having only just gotten him back.

“I mean it’s one more than four,” Skubal said. “It’s good, it’s part of the progression, hopefully, eventually the reins come off and I can just go back to throwing 100 pitches or whatever that pitch count is and being able to go out and compete for six, seven, however many innings I can.”

Sporadic offense gets the job done

The Tigers got a quick run in the first inning when Greene doubled to the corner in left and then Torkelson brought him home with an RBI single to center. They tacked on another one in the third inning when Rogers and Greene singled to put runners on first and second and then Carpenter singled to left to score Rogers.

HOMECOMING: For Padres’ Jake Cronenworth, Michigan homecoming was just what the hit doctor ordered

Greene got his third hit in the bottom of the fifth, a single to right. Torkelson then hit a slow ground ball that Giants second baseman David Villar couldn’t grab, putting runners on first and third. Carpenter then got his second RBI single of the day to push the lead to 3-0.

It would grow once more in the bottom of the eighth inning. Andy Ibáñez doubled to right and Short brought the two of them home on a shot to left field that just stayed fair, giving the Tigers a little more wiggle room as they took the field in the top of the ninth.

“I went into that at-bat saying if a ball starts at me, I have to swing,” Short said. “It’s gonna be a good pitch to hit with his slider coming from all the way behind you and soon as I saw it, literally start at my neck area I was on go and just hoping it was a slider.”

Bullpen holds it down

Once Skubal exited after five innings, José Cisnero was called in to replace him. He gave up the sole run of the game on a home run to Wilmer Flores but settled in to finish the inning. He recorded two strikeouts over 1⅔ innings.

Tyler Holton continued to show he is one of the strongest weapons in the Tigers’ bullpen as he gave up no hits, walks, or runs while recording two strikeouts over 1⅓ innings.

Jason Foley finished things off, allowing one hit and one walk in the process, but recovering to get the final out, giving the Tigers their second straight victory and improve their post-All-Star break record at 7-4.