Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, the frontrunner for the American League Cy Young, pitched seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.01 through 11 starts, but that wasn't surprising.

Skubal has been dominant all season.

More surprisingly, Matt Vierling continued to impress with another powerful swing to the pull side. For his entire career, Vierling has worked to get the ball in the air to left field, and in the past two games, he has three home runs to that part of the field.

The Tigers rode Skubal's arm and Vierling's bat to an 8-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader at Comerica Park. The Tigers (27-27) have won four games in a row following a five-game losing streak.

Vierling finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs.

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He hit two home runs in Sunday's 14-11 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, including a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. Vierling didn't play Monday or Tuesday because of a team off day and rainout, but he never cooled down.

A red-hot Vierling put the Tigers ahead, 1-0, with an RBI single in the first inning, facing Pirates (25-30) right-hander Jared Jones. He increased the lead to 6-0 with a three-run home run in the fifth inning.

Vierling hit the single off Jones' fastball and the homer off Jones' slider.

Jones, 22, has been one of the best rookie pitchers in the National League, but his ERA jumped from 3.05 to 3.55 after running into the Tigers in his 11th start.

He allowed seven runs (five earned runs) on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts across 4⅓ innings, throwing 83 pitches. The Tigers crushed his fastball and didn't whiff on any of their 12 swings against his fastball.

The Tigers were all over him from the beginning, with leadoff hitter Wenceel Pérez jumping a 97.8 mph fastball for a leadoff triple to right-center field in the first inning. After that, Vierling hit another fastball back up the middle for a 1-0 lead.

Vierling is hitting .290 with an .811 OPS in 48 games this season.

Aside from Vierling, the Tigers also picked up RBIs from Mark Canha, Gio Urshela, Colt Keith and Jake Rogers.

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Tarik Skubal manages pitch count

The Pirates, armed with a lineup full of right-handed hitters, had three hits and one walk against Skubal in seven innings. They also struck out eight times.

Skubal, 27, threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 25 batters he faced (92%), tossed 66 of 93 pitches for strikes (71%) and generated 15 whiffs on 45 swings (33%). He retired the final 10 batters, as well as 17 of the last 18 batters.

He was that good, again.

Skubal set the tone early on by striking out three batters in the first inning: Andrew McCutchen (called strike, 97.8 mph sinker), Bryan Reynolds (swinging strike, 88.1 mph changeup), Edward Olivares (swinging strike, 96.7 mph fastball).

He took a pitch count of 70 pitches into the fifth inning and bought himself an extra inning on the back-end of his start with three outs on five pitches. He threw one pitch to Michael A. Taylor (flyout), two pitches to Alika Williams (flyout) and two pitches to McCutchen (lineout).

He also pitched to contact in the sixth inning, needing just seven pitches for three outs. He threw one pitch to Reynolds (groundout), two to Connor Joe (groundout) and four to Olivares (groundout).

Skubal's pitch count went from 70 to 82 in a two-inning stretch, allowing him to take the mound for the seventh for the second time this season, in which he threw his final 11 pitches.

Skubal generated his 15 whiffs with five fastballs, six changeups, two sliders, one sinker and one curveball.

Finishing the game

Right-handed reliever Mason Englert completed the eighth and ninth innings, and retired all six batters.

Englert recorded two strikeouts and four groundouts.

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

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal, Matt Vierling team up in Tigers Game 1 win over Pirates