Red Sox Notes: Boston Credits Tigers Ace For ‘Statement’ Victory

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal made one mistake against the Boston Red Sox before settling in and providing an electrifying performance for his league-leading 16th win of the season. Tyler O'Neill hit a solo home run in the top of the first inning to give Boston an early lead, but Skubal and the Detroit defense behind him shut down the Red Sox offense to secure a 2-1 victory at Comerica Park on Saturday night.

"He's one of the best pitchers in the league for sure," O'Neill told reporters after the loss, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "... Sixth, seventh inning, he's still throwing 100 miles an hour. That's elite stuff."

Skubal allowed four hits and struck out eight batters without surrendering a walk in eight innings for the Tigers. Red Sox manager Alex Cora said you have to tip your cap to the leading Cy Young candidate.

"He's probably the best pitcher in the American League right now," Cora said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "We saw him in Spring Training, and we knew he was going to have a big year. That was a statement game for him. He should probably win the Cy Young. ... That guy is amazing. You have to tip your hat."

Across the diamond, Nick Pivetta did enough for the Red Sox to beat the Tigers. He allowed two runs on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts across six innings. A miss-played ball by Rob Refsnyder in left field allowed Trey Sweeney to knock in two to give the Tigers a one-run lead in the bottom of the second.

"I should catch that every time," Refsnyder told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "I apologized to Nick. Disappointed that I didn't catch it. The wind took it a lot further than I thought. But that's all on me, and I should have caught it."

Here are more notes from Saturday's Red Sox-Tigers game:

-- In his last two outings, Pivetta has allowed a combined five runs on 10 hits while striking out 16 batters and allowing just one walk.

"It was good. It was a good battle," Cora said of Pivetta's performance in Saturday's loss. "He made some good pitches and gave us a chance to win. If we keep pitching this way, tomorrow will be fun."

-- Boston fell to four games back in the AL wild-card race, but the Red Sox are not down on themselves and still believe they can make a run at the postseason.

"We come here tomorrow, and we win the series; we go to New York to do the same thing. We stay the course," Cora said. "We're probably going to be three and a half games back from a wild card spot going into tomorrow.

"A lot of people outside of these walls didn't believe that, and we did. We actually believe we can do more. We know where we're going to be on Sept. 1. We know where we're going to be. Now we go. We gotta play better baseball. It should be fun the rest of the way."

-- The Red Sox and Tigers complete their three-game series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch from Comerica Park is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.