Tigers' Skubal sharp, but Jansen allows walk-off homer vs. Braves
ATLANTA - Another body blow.
The Atlanta Braves, the winningest team in baseball, walked the Tigers off in the bottom of the ninth.
Matt Olson lined a two-run homer off Kenley Jansen, giving the Braves a 4-3 win at Truist Park.
It wasted a strong effort by Tarik Skubal.
If you want a signature moment from Skubal's seven-inning gem Wednesday, how about his three-pitch strikeout of Robert Acuna Jr. in the third inning.
He got him to take an ugly half-swing at an 88-mph slider, then froze him with a 95-mph sinker and blew him away with a 98-mph four-seam fastball.
Or maybe it was the strikeout of Mauricio Dubon to end his outing in the seventh. He hadn't thrown a curveball all game, until he spun it on a 2-2 pitch, getting an ugly didn't-mean-to swing from Dubon.
Skubal, the two-time reigning American League Cy Young winner, struck out the dangerous Acuna three times.
He mixed four-seamers and sinkers with change-ups and sliders, getting 16 whiffs on 47 swings (6 on 15 four-seamers). He gave up some hard contact early, but the only smear on his ledger was a first-inning two-run homer by Ozzie Albies.
His efficiency was impressive. After a 23-pitch first inning, he didn't throw more than 13 pitches from the second through the sixth.
He finished the seventh at 91 pitches, with seven strikeouts and nine ground-ball outs.
The scariest moment of the game for him came during his battle with Olson in the seventh. After throwing a 96-mph sinker, Skubal, took off his glove and started shaking out his arm. Manager AJ Hinch and trainer Kelly Rhoades came out to check.
Skubal threw a practice pitch and then struck out Olson with a 97-mph four-seamer.
The Tigers backed Skubal with a crisply-played defensive game.
Third baseman Colt Keith stopped some early bleeding by Skubal in the first inning, ranging to his left and making a diving stop of a hard ground ball and throwing out Olson.
It came right after Albies had launched a middle-in four-seamer into the seats in left for a two-run homer.
Keith took a double away from Albies with a slick backhand play over the bag at third and strong throw across the diamond in the sixth. He also started two double plays.
Right fielder Kerry Carpenter made an exception play in the fourth inning, racing into the gap to cut off another hard-hit ball by Olson leading off the fourth. He hustled the ball in, held Olson to a single and Skubal got Austin Riley to bang into a double-play on the next pitch.
Jace Jung didn't waste any time showing why he was the choice to come up from Triple-A Toledo and replace the injured Javier Baez.
The Tigers were down 2-0 with two outs in the second inning against Braves' rookie right-hander JR Ritchie, who was making his second big league start.
Wenceel Perez, batting left-handed and jammed on a pitch, hit an excuse-me double inside the bag at third base and Jung drew a two-out walk to extend the inning.
It was an extension of Jung's work at Toledo where he was controlling his at-bats to the tune of a .358 on-base percentage with 22 walks and 28 strikeouts.
He helped set the table for rookie Kevin McGonigle, whose single scored Perez, sent Jung to third and extended his on-base streak to an MLB-best 26 starts. A couple of pitches later he scored on an errant pick-off throw to first.
Riley Greene broke the 2-2 tie in the third inning.
Ritchie struck him out on three pitches in the first inning, punching him swinging through back-to-back change-ups. Ritchie stayed with the change-up when Greene came up again in the third. Except Greene made an adjustment.
He scalded the change-up 417 feet to left-center for his fourth home run. The ball left his bat with an exit velocity of 106 mph.
Kyle Finnegan, despite a pair of two-out walks, pitched a scoreless eighth.
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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 9:23 PM.