Tarik Skubal puts on show for his hometown fans, but Tigers lose

PHOENIX — Ok, maybe the entire town of Kingman, Arizona, wasn’t on hand Wednesday afternoon to see their hometown hero, but that lower section down right field, toward the concourse at Chase Field, certainly made their presence known loud and clear. They watched their famous Kingman native mow down the Arizona Diamondbacks , but only this time, the two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal didn’t get his Detroit Tigers teammates to cooperate. Skubal, despite giving up just one run and six hits in seven dominant innings, lost 1-0 to the Diamondbacks .

It was the first time he lost a 1-0 game since May 31 last season against the Kansas City Royals when he also gave up one run in seven innings. Skubal gave up a home run to Corbin Carroll on his ninth pitch of the game, and allowed only one runner to reach second base after the third inning on shortstop Javier Baez’s error. He threw 60 of his 87 pitches for strikes, but took no solace in his latest dominant performance, with the Tigers having scored in just four of their last 49 innings.

“Obviously, it doesn’t really matter,’’ said Skubal, 1-1 with a 0. 69 ERA, vying to join Hall of Famers Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson to win three consecutive Cy Young awards. “We lost.

The goal of every game that I’m pitching, I want to win. It doesn’t really matter how it happens. “Individually, fine, but it’s a team game.