Miguel Cabrera delivers walk-off 1B in Detroit Tigers' 4-3 win over Cleveland Guardians

Detroit Tigers veteran Miguel Cabrera celebrated with his teammates.

Thanks to Cabrera's single, the 14th walk-off hit of his career, the Tigers topped the Cleveland Guardians, 4-3, in the first of four games between the American League Central foes at Comerica Park. The Tigers (16-28) boast back-to-back wins and kicked off a nine-game homestand with a much-needed victory.

Cabrera's single scored Jonathan Schoop, who doubled with one out and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Cleveland reliever Trevor Stephan.

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Left-hander Tarik Skubal completed seven innings on 102 pitches (73 strikes) for the Tigers, allowing three runs on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts. The 25-year-old has a 2.44 ERA in nine starts this season, along with a 1.45 ERA across five starts in May.

After the second inning, Skubal officially completed 21 scoreless innings in a row, the longest streak for an MLB starter this season. He passed Joe Ryan (Minnesota Twins) and Miles Mikolas (St. Louis Cardinals), both with 20 scoreless innings earlier this season.

Former Tiger Justin Verlander, pitching for the Houston Astros, has an active streak of 19 scoreless.

Right-handed reliever Jason Foley pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Lefty Gregory Soto, the Tigers' closer, entered in the ninth to hold the tie. He worked around a one-out double from Oscar Gonzalez, retiring Ernie Clement (strikeout on three pitches) and Oscar Mercado (flyout).

Three early runs but missed opportunities

The Tigers struck first in the first inning, thanks to three of four batters reaching safely against right-handed starter Konnor Pilkington, making his fifth appearance and second start of his MLB career.

Robbie Grossman led off with a single, and Miguel Cabrera drew a one-out walk to set the table for Javier Báez. He delivered an RBI single on a grounder into right for a 1-0 advantage.

With two outs, Spencer Torkelson took a walk to load the bases.

Daz Cameron flied out to right field in foul territory, stranding the bases loaded, though,  allowing Pilkington to escape further damage. Still, the Tigers forced him to throw 28 pitches.

In the second, the Tigers added two runs for a 3-0 lead.

Jonathan Schoop plated Derek Hill with a sacrifice fly to center, then Cabrera shot a 3-2 changeup through the hole and into right field for an RBI single. The 39-year-old scored Grossman, who doubled before Schoop's plate appearance for his second hit in as many at-bats.

The Tigers chased Pilkington with one out in the fourth inning, as the 24-year-old walked Grossman on seven pitches, walked Schoop on five pitches and allowed a single to Cabrera to juice the bases.

With Báez coming to the plate, the Guardians turned to righty reliever Enyel De Los Santos. The decision to go to the bullpen paid off for Cleveland: Báez struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt and Jeimer Candelario flied out to shallow left field.

The Tigers stranded the bases loaded twice in the first four innings.

Skubal not perfect

In the third inning, the Guardians snapped Skubal's scoreless streak by tacking on three runs.

Mercado opened the third with a single and scored from first base on the ensuing double by Luke Maile. Grossman, the left fielder, had trouble gathering the ball, which ricocheted off the wall in foul territory.

That allowed Maile to cross home easily.

With two outs, Owen Miller connected on Skubal's 0-2 curveball. Miller put the ball back up the middle and into left-center field, just past a diving Báez. Myles Straw and Amed Rosario scored on the play.

Outside of the 32-pitch third inning, Skubal worked efficiently. He fired eight pitches in the first inning, 16 pitches in the second, nine pitches in the fourth, 15 pitches in the fifth, eight pitches in the sixth and 14 pitches in the seventh.

The final two batters Skubal faced, Mercado and Maile, struck out swinging. He punched out Mercado with a 96 mph four-seamer, then got Maile with a 93.9 mph four-seamer.

He also had two strikeouts against Miller.

Skubal beat Miller on three pitches to begin the second inning and three pitches to begin the sixth. Both strikeouts included back-to-back changeups with the second and third pitches of the at-bat.

For Skubal's 102 pitches, he tossed 29 sliders, 29 four-seam fastballs, 19 changeups, 18 sinkers and seven curveballs. He produced 11 swings and misses — including six with his changeup — and 23 called strikes.

His slider and four-seamer each earned eight called strikes.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera delivers in 4-3 win over Guardians