Tigers drop rubber match to Phillies in last game before All-Star break

Detroit — It went as advertised for a while.On the final day before the MLB’s mid-summer break, the two best pitchers not selected to the All-Star Game put on a show on a glorious Sunday at Comerica Park.Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler and Tigers ace Tarik Skubal dueled for five innings in the rubber match of the three-game series.

But the battle ended too soon for Skubal.He was out of the game after a leadoff single by Bryce Harper in the sixth. By the time the Tigers got back in the dugout, the Phillies had scored four times and were on their way to a series-clinching 5-0 win.

The Tigers, after an impressive six-week surge, enter the break with a 44-52 record.It was another powerful performance by Skubal, but it was also labor-intensive. And thus, brief.

The Phillies made him work and drove up his pitch count. Harper’s single came after a 10-pitch at-bat and brought his pitch count to 93.That brought manager AJ Hinch out to the mound.

Skubal looked dismayed. He handed Hinch the ball, didn’t acknowledge the standing ovation from the crowd and walked straight down the tunnel into the clubhouse.BOX SCORE: Phillies 5, Tigers 0The rest of the inning unraveled.

Alec Bohm greeted Keider Montero with a liner that deflected off his leg for a single. And after a sacrifice bunt by Edmundo Sosa, Hinch called for an intentional walk to lefty-swinging Brandon Marsh.Montero struck out Derek Hill but J.

T. Realmuto cleared the bases with a three-run double. He went to third on an errant throw by shortstop Kevin McGonigle, a play where Montero failed to back up home plate.

The inning should have ended there. But it didn’t. Bryson Stott hit a routine ground ball to shortstop.

But McGonigle slow-played the ball and Stott beat it out to score Realmuto and extend the inning.That inning came on the heels of a 27-pitch grind for Skubal in the fifth. With one out, Realmuto singled and Stott doubled.

Skubal, though, went into full bulldog mode.He struck out Trea Turner with an evil change