Detroit Tigers at San Francisco Giants

SAN FRANCISCO – The Tigers will look a mite different Tuesday when they return to Comerica Park for the first time since July 29. When they departed for their only three-city trip of 2026, Tarik Skubal was still on the team, Jackson Jobe had another Minor League rehab start on tap and center fielder Max Clark just heard the news he would be in The Show two days later. One thing has not changed. The Tigers remain in the hunt in the tightly bunched American League Central and Wild Card races. They bettered their positions in both with a 7-2 trip to the West Coast that ended with Sunday’s 3-1, 10-inning victory against the Giants. The Tigers started the trip six games behind the first-place White Sox in the Central. The win pushed them within 3 1/2 games of Chicago despite still being two games below .500. The Tigers prospered in Seattle, West Sacramento and San Francisco on the strength of their pitching, which allowed a total of 17 runs over the nine games and threw four shutouts. That has to be considered a statement performance coming after president of baseball operations Scott Harris traded two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize at the Deadline. “There’s been a lot of noise around us and we keep stacking series wins,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I obviously love the mindset of our team.” Said center fielder Zach McKinstry, who made a huge contribution Sunday with his arm, “It’s a credit to our pitching staff. We have a few shutouts on our side and it’s been awesome to get to play defense behind these guys and watch what they’ve been doing. It’s been great to see with the loss of two of our best pitchers.” Sunday’s road-trip finale featured two excellent starters, Logan Webb and Troy Melton, providing “as good as advertised” performances. The Giants ace held the Tigers to one run over eight innings while Melton, as hot as any pitcher in the Majors besides the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski, allowed an unearned run over six-plus innings.