DETROIT — Kevin Gausman allowed one hit and one walk while striking out 10 in six shutout innings to outduel reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in the Toronto Blue Jays’ impressive 6-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.
Skubal allowed five hits in six scoreless innings while walking three and striking out seven. But the Blue Jays dented Detroit’s bullpen en route to their third straight win in this battle of first-place teams.
“That’s a heavyweight fight,” Jays outfielder George Springer said on Toronto’s postgame show on Sportsnet, referring to the Gausman-Skubal matchup. “Those guys went blow for blow and fought the whole game. But Gausy was pitching lights out. That’s just a hell of a ballgame.”
Bo Bichette’s two-run single broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning. Nathan Lukes, Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. then homered in a four-run ninth as the Jays won their fourth in a row and increased their AL East lead to 6½ games over the New York Yankees.
The Tigers have lost six straight and 12 out of 13 but still hold a comfortable lead in the AL Central. They have scored only 33 runs during that stretch (2.5 per game), and they were held to a pair of Jake Rogers singles on Saturday as Gausman frustrated the home team.
“It looked like three years ago,” Toronto manager John Schneider said of Gausman, 34, who won 12, 12 and 14 games in his first three seasons with the Jays. “He was just dominating where he wanted to go with the ball, and his splitter was a difference-maker.”
Four Toronto pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts and one walk, and Braydon Fisher (4-0) pitched a perfect seventh for the win. The Jays are 8-1 since the All-Star break and have won 21 of 26 overall.
Meanwhile, Riley Greene’s ninth-inning groundout plated Detroit’s only run, while reliever Will Vest (5-2) took the loss.
The Tigers will try to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday, when former Detroit ace Max Scherzer (1-0, 5.14 ERA) will start for the Jays against Jack Flaherty (5-10, 4.77).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.