Detroit Tigers swept by Kansas City Royals in 8-3 loss as Cole Ragans bests Tarik Skubal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The pitching matchup between left-handed aces Tarik Skubal and Cole Ragans in Wednesday's game didn't disappoint, but the Detroit Tigers were a disappointment for the third game in a row against the Kansas City Royals.

The Tigers lost, 8-3.

Maybe this team isn't a postseason contender after all.

"We were pretty competitive," manager A.J. Hinch said. "Obviously, they did a tremendous job offensively scoring a lot of runs, but we fought back each game and stayed competitive. No matter what your record is, you got to review what you're doing well, what you're not doing well."

The Tigers (23-26) — now on a four-game losing streak — swept by the Royals (and outscored by 17 runs) in three games at Kauffman Stadium, falling to 9½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central. Since their 5-0 start, the Tigers have an 18-26 record in their past 44 games.

In Wednesday's series finale, Ragans beat Skubal in the anticipated matchup between heavyweight southpaws.

"Get back home and win tomorrow's game," Skubal said. "I think that should be the focus, just win tomorrow's game. What happened, happened. We can't take it back. It starts with me, too. I didn't do a good enough job of giving our team a chance to win today. I got some things to work on, and then I'll get back out there on the mound when I can. Let's just win tomorrow. Winning cures everything."

Nearly locked up

Ragans fired six scoreless innings on one hit and three walks with 12 strikeouts, throwing 100 pitches; Skubal surrendered four runs on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts in five innings, throwing 96 pitches.

Ragans registered a career-high 12 strikeouts.

"In the fourth inning, I had an idea of what was going on," Ragans said of his no-hit bid. "I just tried to keep having a good mix, go after guys and trust the guys behind me. I had a few walks in there. The fastball was missing a little bit, but overall, I felt like we had a good mix and kept the off balance."

The Tigers didn't get a hit against Ragans until Riley Greene slapped a two-strike fastball into left field for a single with two outs in the sixth inning. Aside from the single, Ragans walked Jake Rogers in the third inning, Matt Vierling in the fourth inning and Vierling again in the sixth.

After Greene's single, Ragans responded by striking out Gio Urshela to strand two runners in the sixth and compete his outing. Eight of the nine batters in the Tigers' starting lineup struck out against Ragans, with Greene as the exception.

Ragans generated 10 of 15 whiffs with his fastball, which averaged 95.3 mph. He also picked up four whiffs with his changeup. The 26-year-old dropped his ERA from 3.70 to 3.34 with a brilliant performance in his 11th start this season.

"He's really good," Hinch said. "He does a little bit of everything, but he really comes right at you and challenges you. Just when you get into swing mode, the changeup comes. He has a miss fastball, and we missed it a lot, and the changeup was really effective. He proved to be as difficult as we thought he would be."

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Skubal not quite his normal self

Skubal kept the Royals to four runs, but he wasn't at his best.

The Royals scored their first two runs in the second inning, when Freddy Fermin hit an RBI double on Skubal's middle-middle fastball and Garrett Hampson hit an RBI double on Skubal's middle-down changeup.

Both doubles occurred in full counts.

"They had some good at-bats," Skubal said. "They fouled off some really good pitches. Too many pitchers counts led to 3-2 counts, and that's a credit to their hitters. I have to do better at finishing those at-bats."

In the fourth inning, Nelson Velázquez demolished Skubal's middle-in sinker that caught too much of the middle of the plate for a solo home run. He hit the ball 430 feet to left-center field with a 110.2 mph exit velocity.

It was the fourth homer allowed by Skubal in 60 innings this season, matching the same number of homers he gave up in 80⅓ innings last season.

The Royals took a 4-0 lead on three singles in a row from Maikel Garcia (changeup), Bobby Witt Jr. (changeup) and Vinnie Pasquantino (fastball) in the fifth inning. Skubal finished his outing by getting Salvador Perez to ground into a double play.

Skubal threw 31 four-seam fastballs, 21 changeups, 20 sliders, 20 sinkers and four curveballs. He threw just 21.9% changeups, down from his season average of 27.9%.

"I felt like I made some quality pitches today," Skubal said. "The stat line is a little misleading, I think. That's a part of baseball. That happens in baseball. I want to be great every time out, but that's not the nature of the game. Sometimes, you're going to get beat up a little bit."

The 27-year-old generated 14 whiffs on 50 swings — a worse-than-normal 28% whiff rate — with seven fastballs, three changeups and four sliders. His fastball still averaged 96.6 mph, but his changeup was not effective for the first time in a long time.

His ERA jumped from 1.80 to 2.25 ERA in his 10th start.

A few runs not enough

The Tigers scored two runs in the seventh inning against left-handed reliever Will Smith, who replaced Ragans. Spencer Torkelson grounded out and Javier Báez popped out, but Colt Keith walked, Jake Rogers singled and Andy Ibáñez delivered the big hit.

Ibáñez hit a fastball for a two-run double to base of the wall in left-center field.

The Tigers cut their deficit to 4-2.

For matchup reasons, Kerry Carpenter — a left-handed hitter — came off the bench as a pinch-hitter for the right-handed Vierling when the Royals called right-handed reliever John Schreiber out of the bullpen to replace Smith.

Schreiber walked Carpenter on eight pitches, bringing the tying run to the plate in Mark Canha, but Canha — who finished 0-for-5 with three strikeouts — flew out to right field and stranded the runners in the top of the seventh inning.

The Royals got the runs back (and then some) in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Bobby Witt Jr. delivered a two-run double off right-handed reliever Alex Lange's two-strike curveball below the strike zone. Lange threw five pitches to Witt, and all of them were curveballs.

The double from Witt extended the Royals' lead to 6-2. Fermin boosted the margin to 8-2 with a two-run single off Lange's first-pitch sinker with two outs in the seventh inning. Lange, who has a putrid 18.9% walk rate, owns a 4.34 ERA after giving up four runs to the Royals.

"The leadoff walk to start the inning is always tough," Hinch said, "and it's been his Achilles heel. Three free passes to all the hitters that he faced, and then they put a couple balls in play pretty well. Just a lot of traffic that was created by some misfires, and then when he did go in the zone, they did a good job."

Báez made it 8-3 with an RBI single off left-handed reliever Angel Zerpa in the eighth inning.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal stumbles, Detroit Tigers swept by Royals in 8-3 loss