The Detroit Tigers may have saved their season.

There have been hopes of an improbable run for the last American League wild-card spot in the past week, 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 at Comerica Park, thanks to the dominance of left-hander Tarik Skubal, who became MLB's first pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts and 16 victories this season. He also pitched into the eighth inning for the first time in his 27 starts this season, highlighted by an AL-leading 2.51 ERA.

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Skubal, 27, allowed one run on four hits and zero walks with eight strikeouts across eight innings, 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.

He 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 5½ games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final spot in the wild-card race, with 25 games remaining.

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 the left fielder dropped the ball. It was ruled a double, but more importantly, Torkelson and McKinstry scored for a 2-1 advantage.

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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

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.

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. He struck him out with a down-and-away changeup, ending the inning. After screaming in celebration, Skubal immediately asked for his teammates to keep the milestone baseball, but the ball had already been thrown into the stands.

One of his teammates got it back for him.

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.

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