DETROIT – There are no moral victories in sports, of course.
But the Milwaukee Brewers departed Comerica Park in the wake of their 5-4, walk-off loss to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon, April 23 knowing they could compete with – and come out on top against – the very best the game has to offer.
That being reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, who dominated through the first three innings only for the Brewers offense to begin chipping away at him and ultimately knock the left-hander from the game after taking the lead, 4-3, in the seventh inning.
“It hurts,” said manager Pat Murphy of the loss. “It’s gut-wrenching. But a lot of good things happened today. I’m thinking about the health of the club, and they know they went and competed against a high-end No. 1 and did some really good things.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Brewers 4
Skubal, who entered with a 3-2 record, ERA of 2.18 and WHIP of 0.96 through his first five starts, was locked in from his first pitch against a Brewers lineup without left-handed hitters Garrett Mitchell, Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick and with the right-handed-hitting Brandon Lockridge, Luis Matos and the switch-hitting Blake Perkins.
Of his 11 first-inning pitches, 10 were for strikes. In the second inning it was seven of eight and in the third all seven – a show of dominance such that reporters began scouring the records for the last time Milwaukee had been no-hit.
And among the four times it’s happened in franchise history, one came at the very same ballpark – June 12, 2007, when Justin Verlander struck out 12 while walking four over 112 pitches (and in a funny twist, Verlander is back pitching for the Tigers at age 43, although he’s currently on the injured list).
“He’s had a lot of success,” Perkins said. “He’s a good pitcher. He was executing his plan. I thought we had really good at-bats and put the ball in play hard, just not a lot was falling in the early innings.
“Just keep at it.”
Alas, Skubal was unable to carry his budding no-no even through the fourth as with two outs as William Contreras and Gary Sánchez strung together consecutive doubles to make it a 2-1 game. The Tigers had grabbed the lead in the first inning on a two-run home run by Riley Greene.
After going down in order in the fifth, Milwaukee appeared poised to at least tie the game in the sixth after consecutive singles by David Hamilton and Brandon Lockridge to open the inning. But Brice Turang grounded out and Contreras followed by hitting into a 3-2-3 double play in a 3-0 count to halt the threat.
“You’re facing Skubal, and it might be the only decent pitch you get,” Murphy said of Contreras swinging away in that situation. “I trust William. He knows what he’s doing.
“I get it. But he’s the guy up there at the time and he had a great swing off him the time before.”
Milwaukee, down 3-1 at that point, finally broke through against Skubal in the seventh when Sánchez opened with a bloop single and Matos followed with a single to right. Perkins, up next, lined a double to left to drive in both runners, tie the game at 3-3.
His hit also sent Skubal to the showers at 94 pitches. Left-hander Tyler Holton replaced him and three batters later Hamilton had sliced a run-scoring single to left to put Milwaukee in front for the first time, 4-3, and close the book on Skubal at seven hits and four runs allowed with five strikeouts.
“He’s a good pitcher and he comes after you,” Perkins said. “Clearly, he likes to throw strikes. I think we did a good job especially the second and third time around making him work a little bit. Make him uncomfortable, be annoying – that’s kind of our theme.”
Lockridge drew a walk after Hamilton’s hit to position the Brewers to do even more damage, but Turang this time swung at the first pitch he saw and hit into a 3-6-3 that left them to settle for the slim one-run lead.
And, as it turned out, it was not enough as Angel Zerpa surrendered the game-tying homer to Jahmai Jones in the eighth and Abner Uribe the game-winner to Spencer Torkelson in the ninth to send the Brewers back home with a .500 record on their six-game road swing.
“They all hurt. You’ve just got to keep perspective,” Murphy said. “The biggest thing I’m proud of is the way we battled through it and got ourselves in that position. We hit into three double plays, unluckily, with runners in scoring position.
“So, yeah, it’s unfortunate. We had many opportunities to blow it open. But credit the Tigers – they did what they needed to do.”
No doubt, Milwaukee will take some of the lessons learned into their series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday at American Family Field.
Reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes awaits in that one, as the Brewers become just the second team ever and first since the Boston Red Sox last season to face reigning Cy Young winners in consecutive games.
Boston got Skubal last May 14 and Atlanta’s Chris Sale on May 16, making Milwaukee the first to accomplish the feat on two straight days.
And on the heels of their successes against Skubal, the Brewers can also look back on what they did to Skenes in 2025 when he went 0-2 against them with a 5.79 ERA and WHIP of 1.43 in 14 total innings over three starts.
“I believe in all these guys. I know what we’re capable of,” Perkins said. “Baseball’s up and down. I know these are cliches, but it’s really true and I think that’s the best way we can look at it.
“Keep playing hard. It didn’t go our way the last couple days but I think we still have good momentum as a team going forward. It’ll be fun to face Skenes. We’ve had good matchups against him in the past.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The loss hurt, but the Brewers showed something against Tarik Skubal
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
