Tigers suffer walk-off loss to Pirates as road series streak ends

PITTSBURGH — The Tigers were two outs away from winning their eighth straight road series.

Didn't happen. Against closer Kenley Jansen, Rafael Flores Jr. and Brandon Lowe hit home runs in the ninth inning to give the Pirates a 4-3 win at PNC Park on Aug. 19.

The day started with Jackson Jobe outdueling Pirates ace Paul Skenes. In his third start back from Tommy John surgery, Jobe limited the Pirates to a run and four hits in 5⅓ innings.

Coming off a rough start against the White Sox at Comerica Park, Jobe was able to stay poised and on point even when things got messy early.

Brandon Lowe walks it off in Pittsburgh! 🏴‍☠️

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/P07KYH1JSh

He gave up a walk, single and a two-out RBI single to Oneil Cruz in the first inning. But, instead of trying to bully his way through the Pirates’ lineup with his high-octane fastball, which he did against the White Sox, he continued to mix his pitches smartly and effectively.

His four-seam fastball was sitting at 98 mph and topped out at 100. His sinker sat at 96 mph with 14 inches of horizontal break. He was gripping and ripping his slider, too. It sat at 90 mph and hit 93 with 2,600-rpm of spin.

Jobe used that mix to induce 10 ground ball outs, including two double plays.

He capped his day in style, punching out his final batter, Esmerlyn Valdez, with a 99-mph four-seamer.

BOX SCORE: Pirates 4, Tigers 3

As for Skenes, he continued to grind through probably the worse stretch of his career. 

He came into this one with an ERA hovering near 6.00 in his last six starts. And even with three extra days of rest, his fastball velocity stayed at 96.7 mph, which is a couple of ticks below his norm. He also had trouble commanding his sweeper and splitter.

And the Tigers didn’t let him breathe. They knocked him out of the game with one out in the fifth inning after collecting three runs, four walks and making him throw 81 pitches.

Hao-Yu Lee got things started with an opposite-field single in the third. He charged around to third on a single to left by Colt Keith, running right in the face of left fielder Bryan Reynolds.

Lee scored on a sacrifice fly by Kevin McGonigle.

Then they chased Skenes in the fifth. Max Clark led off with a double and after Lee walked, scored on a single by Gleyber Torres. That ended the day for Skenes.

Former Tigers lefty Gregory Soto entered and McGonigle greeted him with an RBI double to right-center.

Torres tried to score from first but was thrown out after a well-executed relay from Cruz to Nick Gonzales.

The Pirates made it a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh on a 422-foot pinch-hit home run by Flores off reliever James Waguespack.

Kyle Finnegan issued a pair of two-out walks in the eighth, but got Jacob Gonzalez to fly out to end the threat. Finnegan was also the beneficiary of a terrific diving catch in left by Ben Malgeri to start the inning.

This story will be updated.

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers suffer walk-off loss to Pirates as road series streak ends