CLEVELAND — Jake Rogers dove head-first into home plate after a long run, sliding in safely.

His teammates cheered from the dugout.

"After third, I was giving it all I had," Rogers said. "I was scampering, as the boys like to call me, running."

The Detroit Tigers benefitted from Rogers' triple (aided by a fielding error) in their 8-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Monday's series opener at Progressive Field, the first of four games.

Rogers, a defense-first catcher who isn't paid for his speed, flared a ball into center field with two outs in the second inning. The ball should've dropped in for a single, but when it bounced past diving center fielder Angel Martínez, Rogers turned on the jets. He was on pace for a triple, then he turned the corner and hustled home, only because Martínez slipped in deep center field as he tried to pick up the ball. Rogers beat the relay throw home with a head-first slide.

Rogers was called safe on the close play at the plate, then he rested in a starfish position on the dirt. Players and coaches laughed as he trotted back to the dugout, even though it wasn't an official inside-the-park home run.

"I told the trainers we need an oxygen mask, to go give it to him," said left-hander Tarik Skubal. "He went down to the tunnel and had the fan on him. I'm like, 'Brother, you got to breathe.' It was fun."

The Tigers (50-51) avoided back-to-back losses — which hasn't occurred since June 28-29 — while securing their 11th win in the past 14 games. They trail the first-place Guardians by 10 games in the American League Central.

"I knew the ball was going to be down from my angle," manager A.J. Hinch said, "and then it got further and further away from Martínez, and then when he fell, I picked up Jake, and Jake was just getting to third or close to third. I don't know how heavy his legs got, but he just got in there barely under the tag. That was a lot, and then we had a lot of fun with him in the dugout as you would imagine."

The Tigers also benefitted from Rogers' work as the catcher, as he led a group of three pitchers, including Skubal, in limiting the Guardians to one run despite 11 hits — before the ninth inning.

Skubal, making his first start since pitching in the All-Star Game, allowed one run on 10 hits and one walk with six strikeouts across seven innings, throwing 97 pitches.

He leads the AL with a 2.34 ERA.

"They had made a full team commitment to not pull off the ball and let him utilize his changeup," Hinch said. "That's as good of an approach against Tarik as I've seen this year."

The 27-year-old worked with at least one runner on base in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. The Guardians, though, scored their lone early run off Skubal in the second inning on a bases-loaded bunt from light-hitting, defense-first catcher Austin Hedges.

"Very surprising, but good for him," Rogers said. "That's a run and a hit. I'll take that one run because a bloop hit gets two there. We would rather him get out there, but limiting it to one run is always a good thing. It definitely surprised us."

The 10 hits allowed were a career high for Skubal's 95-game MLB career, spanning five seasons.

At the plate, Rogers finished 1-for-4 with one strikeout, but his "Little League home run" resulted in two runs in the second inning, giving the Tigers a commanding 4-0 lead.

"I got to appeal," Rogers said. "It's a homer to me."

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Tarik Skubal battles

The first inning seemed easy.

Skubal needed just 12 pitches to take care of the first three batters in his 20th start: Steven Kwan grounded out, Martínez popped out, and José Ramírez flew out.

There wasn't another inning where Skubal retired all three batters in order. A bases-loaded bunt from Hedges, who owns a .160 batting average, with two outs in the second inning cut the Tigers' lead to 4-1, but Skubal didn't flinch in any of the other innings.

"The second inning was exhausting," Skubal said. "To limit them to one there, that could have been a lot more runs there. I felt like I gained a little bit of momentum from that inning on, just being able to limit them to one. But it was exhausting. I mean, they had 10 hits or whatever it was. It felt like every inning I was out of the stretch, but those are where the most important pitches are made, out of the stretch. It was a good game, and I enjoyed it."

Skubal escaped the third with an inning-ending double play, stranding Ramírez and Josh Naylor on the bases. He escaped the fourth with an inning-ending strikeout of Kwan, stranding two more runners. He then finished his outing by getting Naylor to ground out to first base with Ramírez on second, ending the seventh.

When Naylor grounded out, Skubal screamed in celebration of a successful seven innings despite a lot of stress.

"It's not a personal thing," Skubal said. "Going into that inning, I knew that if I got into any trouble, I was coming out of the game, and I wanted to finish that inning on my own terms. That's what happened there."

After Skubal, right-handed reliever Shelby Miller worked around a single in the eighth inning.

Left-handed reliever Easton Lucas, recently recalled from Triple-A Toledo, loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch, a single and a walk, which ultimately led to the Guardians' second run, but left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin replaced Lucas and recorded two outs in a row to end the game without further damage.

Justyn-Henry Malloy stays hot

In the first inning, Justyn-Henry Malloy — who has five of his seven home runs in the past 14 games — sparked the Tigers with a two-run home run off right-hander Carlos Carrasco.

Carrasco threw a middle-in sinker; Malloy simply turned on the pitch for a pull-side home run to left field.

Just like that, the Tigers grabbed a 2-0 lead.

"He's very confident right now," Hinch said, "and he's doing a good job of hunting the pitches that he can hit, and he hasn't missed a couple of them now. ... It feels like a bigger and bigger lead with Tarik on the mound, despite how good they are."

After Rogers' second-inning triple, the Tigers extended their lead to 6-1 in the sixth inning with an additional two runs, thanks to back-to-back doubles from Mark Canha and Wenceel Pérez to chase Carrasco, followed by a sacrifice fly from Gio Urshela.

Urshela delivered another sacrifice fly in the eighth inning for a 7-1 advantage.

In the ninth inning, Colt Keith crushed a middle-middle slider from right-handed reliever Peter Strzelecki for a solo home run, making it 8-1. He has 10 homers through 90 games in his rookie season, including six in his past 15 games.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers beat Cleveland Guardians 8-2 for 11th win in 14 games