HOUSTON — Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, making his fifth start this season, threw his first pitch of the game to Jose Altuve, a two-seam fastball to the bottom of the strike zone.
Altuve, a 12-year MLB veteran, was ready.
He turned on it for a solo home run, his 26th career leadoff homer, to put the Houston Astros in the driver's seat from the onset. The Tigers didn't answer until the top of the ninth inning, when Jeimer Candelario drilled a two-out, two-strike, two-run home run to tie the game.
But the Astros came out on top, as Kyle Tucker singled through the hole at shortstop to drive in Chas McCormick with the winning run in the bottom of the inning.