The Detroit Tigers may have saved their season.

There are hopes of an improbable run for the third and final American League wild-card spot, but after losing two games in a row to fall back to .500, Saturday's game against the Boston Red Sox felt like a must-win situation for the Tigers.

The Tigers beat the Red Sox, 2-1, in the second of three games in the series in front of 34,355 fans at Comerica Park, thanks to the dominance of left-hander Tarik Skubal, who became MLB's first pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts (and 16 wins) this season. He also pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his 102-game career, spanning five seasons.

"I hate not being able to finish my own innings," Skubal said of completing eight innings. "Being able to finish my own inning is probably what I was more fired up about."

Skubal, the heavy favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award, leads the AL with a 2.51 ERA in 27 starts in 2024.

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"Tarik is a special person, special player," manager A.J. Hinch said. "I soak it in every day. I love being around this guy every day. We have a great relationship, and we're feeding off of his emotion and his energy every time he pitches."

The 27-year-old allowed one run on four hits and zero walks with eight strikeouts across eight innings against the Red Sox, throwing 72 of 98 pitches for strikes. His final pitch was a 99 mph fastball to strike out Ceddanne Rafaela swinging, ending the eighth inning.

"I got pretty amped up to throw it as hard as I could," Skubal said.

Skubal received a much-deserved standing ovation from the fans on his walk to the dugout.

The Tigers (69-68) entered Saturday with a 2.6% chance to make the postseason, according to FanGraphs. After the win, the Tigers climbed to five games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final spot in the wild-card race, with 25 games remaining.

"We need to focus on winning each day's game," Skubal said.

Both runs scored in the second inning for a 2-1 lead, facing right-hander Nick Pivetta. A single from Spencer Torkelson and a double from Zach McKinstry, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, put two runners in scoring position for Trey Sweeney.

Sweeney hit Pivetta's elevated fastball for a fly ball to left field that should've been caught at the warning track, but left fielder Rob Refsnyder dropped the ball. It was ruled a double, but more importantly, Torkelson and McKinstry scored for a 2-1 advantage.

Aggressive baserunning from McKinstry fooled the Red Sox and allowed third base coach Joey Cora to send McKinstry home, resulting in the second run.

"It's part of our identity," Hinch said. "It's part of what we're trying to instill in these guys. When it comes out in a close game, you can bet on it that I'm going to show it tomorrow in the hitters meeting as an example of how we win a game."

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Pivetta allowed two runs on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts across six innings, throwing 96 pitches.

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Tarik Skubal shoves

One member of the Red Sox tagged Skubal in the first inning.

With two outs, Tyler O'Neill — whom Skubal later struck out for his 200th strikeout — crushed a slider at the bottom of the strike zone for a solo home run to left-center. He hit the ball 401 feet with a 111.5 mph exit velocity.

The homer put the Red Sox ahead, 1-0.

"I thought it was a good pitch," Skubal said. "He hit a good pitch. Solo homers don't beat you. Nobody on, I'm going to be aggressive, and if they hit it out of the park, they're going to have to do it a lot to beat us, so it is what it is."

Skubal struck out Rafael Devers on three pitches, putting him away with a better slider, to bounce back in the first inning. From then on, he completely dominated the Red Sox.

In the sixth, Skubal struck out O'Neill for his 200th strikeout, becoming the first Tiger to do so since Matthew Boyd in 2019. He struck him out with a down-and-away changeup, ending the inning. Skubal immediately asked his teammates to keep the milestone baseball, but it had already been thrown into the stands.

Matt Vierling retrieved the 200th-strikeout ball from a fan in exchange for a different ball.

"I didn't even know," said Jake Rogers, who has worked as Skubal's catcher for all 27 starts. "I just threw the ball around like normal, and all of a sudden, he's asking for the ball. I'm like, 'What for?' He's like, '200 strikeouts.' I'm like, 'Well, I could have held onto that for you if I would have known.' But yeah, it's awesome. He's having a heck of a year. I'm happy for him and all his success."

Skubal generated 16 whiffs on 53 strikes — a 30.2% whiff rate — with two sinkers, seven changeups, two fastballs, four sliders and one curveball. His fastball averaged 96.8 mph, maxing out at 99.5 mph.

He received help from his defense on four notable plays, including an incredible jump throw from third baseman Ryan Kreidler for the first out in the eighth inning.

"All leadoff outs," Skubal said, "so that's huge. It becomes really hard to score when we get the first guy out."

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 squeak by Boston Red Sox behind 8 IP from Tarik Skubal