Brewers Find Tarik Skubal Silver Lining in Heartbreaking Loss to Tigers

That one was... rough

Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson (20) celebrates a walk-off home run against Milwaukee Brewers during the ninth inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Thursday, April 23, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Some losses hurt more than others throughout the course of 162 games, and the Milwaukee Brewers suffered a particularly nasty one on Thursday.

Trailing for most of the afternoon, the Brewers put together an impressive seventh-inning rally against Detroit Tigers ace and defending American League Cy Young Award winner, turning a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.

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But the bullpen gave up the lead, as Jahmai Jones tied the game with a homer against Angel Zerpa in the eighth inning before Spencer Torkelson walked it off with a bomb against stellar righty Abner Uribe.

Pat Murphy provides perspective as Brewers get to Skubal

As he typically does so well, Brewers manager Pat Murphy was able to put things into perspective after the Crew left the field to the sight of the Tigers mobbing Torkelson and dumping water coolers and powdery white rosin all over him.

“It hurts. It’s gut-wrenching,” Murphy said, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. “But they know they went and competed against a No. 1, and a high-end No. 1, and did some really good things.”

Skubal was on cruise control through the first six innings, with the only blemish coming on a fourth-inning RBI double from Gary Sánchez, who continues to put on a show for the Brew Crew early in the season. Sánchez then started a rally in the seventh with a single, followed by a single from Luis Matos, then a two-run double from Blake Perkins that sent Skubal to the showers.

Perkins came around to score on a David Hamilton single to give Milwaukee the lead and put Skubal on the hook for the loss. But instead of winning a series on the road and leaving town on the ultimate high note, the Brewers collapsed.

“We didn’t put the nail in and hit it,” Murphy said, per McCalvy.

The last few outs of a ballgame are the toughest ones to get, so there's no real harm in dropping a few games like this throughout a season. But the Brewers will have to find other signature wins at some point, because they dropped an early chance to notch one.

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