KANSAS CITY -- Tarik Skubal solved his Royal blues when the Tigers needed him most.

After tying a season high with five runs in his last outing against Kansas City, the AL Cy Young frontrunner responded with five frames of one-run ball to lead the Tigers to a 4-2 victory over the Royals on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.

The series sweep, and Detroit¡¯s fourth straight victory, closed the gap for the third and final AL Wild Card spot to a half-game behind Minnesota, which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Tigers have now won 25 of their past 35 games, catching up nine games in the Wild Card race since Aug. 22.

But for Skubal to finally get past a pesky Royals squad, he needed to escape a two-on, two-out jam in the fifth with Salvador Perez at the plate. The veteran catcher entered Wednesday with four homers and a 1.259 OPS against the southpaw in 27 career at-bats, but Skubal turned to his signature changeup to strike out Perez for his seventh K of the night.

After Skubal dished his 95th and final pitch of the game, he let out a massive scream, clapping his hands together so hard his glove fell off -- a testament to how critical that at-bat was for a Tigers club making a miraculous postseason run.

¡°You know, sometimes five [innings] is enough, and he did his job by getting the biggest out against his biggest nemesis,¡± manager A.J. Hinch said. ¡°And showed a ton of emotion, and [then] he was done for the day. If he implodes in the first inning or gets too emotional, or somehow isn¡¯t able to make pitches to Salvy, who he knows has been good against him, this game is completely different.

¡°He¡¯s our guy. And we need our guy to do his part, and tonight he did. He stayed in that fight and continued to pitch well.¡±

The Royals threw the first punch against Skubal, notching three hits and a first-inning run. But after that, Skubal didn¡¯t allow a hit for the rest of his outing. He generated 11 whiffs on 31 swings with his four-seam fastball and earned his first victory at Kauffman Stadium since 2021.

¡°Honestly, I emptied the tank from pitch one. This team¡¯s good, and they handle me,¡± Skubal said. ¡°They put the ball in play and make things happen. I was trying to avoid the big inning there and then obviously the emotion there. There¡¯s an error that inning, [so] that¡¯s an inning that has a chance to get big. To get a zero there and hand it to [Brenan] Hanifee and let [the bullpen] do their thing. ¡­ Great win.¡±

Skubal entered with a career 5.05 ERA against the Royals, his highest mark against any team he¡¯s made at least four starts against, and a career 6.14 ERA at The K, but the Tigers¡¯ ace reversed that trend to take Detroit¡¯s postseason push to its highest point yet.

It was just the fifth time in 30 starts this season that Skubal went five innings or less, but at this time of the year -- that¡¯s not what mattered to Skubal.

¡°I like my chances against anybody, no matter how many times they¡¯ve seen me,¡± Skubal said. ¡°I¡¯m confident in the stuff I¡¯m throwing up there. But yeah, they battled off some good pitches, it kind of shortened my outing a little bit, but we won. Who cares?¡±

Skubal¡¯s outing was enough because of big hits from Riley Greene and Trey Sweeney that sparked a three-run third inning. Greene blasted a 427-foot homer to give Detroit the lead before Sweeney added on two more with a double down the right-field line.

After that, the bullpen secured the sweep and Skubal¡¯s 17th win of the season -- tied for the most in the Major Leagues -- with four frames of one-run ball.

And now with nine games left in the regular season, the Tigers could be tied for a postseason spot as soon as Thursday. The race, with Skubal leading the charge, is officially on.

¡°I¡¯m really proud of the guys, you know. Last time we came here, we were on the other side of the sweep,¡± Skubal said. ¡°We have a good group, resilient group. I mean, if you just look at the season that we¡¯ve had, I think it showed in this series.

¡° ¡­ We got off to a good start and kind of slumped in the middle, and now look at us. Trade Deadline we were sellers, and now look at us. I think that speaks to the guys in this room. And there's no quit. ¡­ It's a ton of fun and I love what we got going on.¡±