DETROIT – Things got better, certainly. But it was very strange to see a team jump on Tarik Skubal the way the Athletics did in the first two innings Tuesday night.

Especially at Comerica Park where in his previous 24 home starts he was 16-1 with a 1.95 ERA.

Everything turned out fine for the home team. After an 81-minute weather delay at the start of the game, the Tigers, on the strength of a five-run third inning, outslugged the Athletics 11-4 in the first of three.

But for a minute there …

Skubal was in a 2-0 hole just six pitches in the game. He walked leadoff man Jacob Wilson and then Brent Rooker jumped a first-pitch heater and sent it 415 feet over the bullpen in left.

He got the next five hitters. Then the Athletics went back to ambushing.

Tyler Soderstrom ripped a first-pitch single and then No. 9 hitter Denzel Clarke, who came in hitting .190 with one homer, jumped a 94-mph changeup and launched it 422 feet into the shrubbery beyond the wall in center.

Like a parallel universe.

Then Skubal settled in and the Tigers got all those runs back and more off the Athletics’ $67 million ace, Luis Severino.

Kerry Carpenter answered Rooker’s homer with a 417-foot rocket to right-center, full-go on a 3-0 heater. The two-run shot was his 14th.

Wenceel Perez, who was a force on both sides of the ball, tied the game in the third with a two-run double.

Then, with two on and two out, Dillon Dingler stayed on a 2-2 sweeper and lined a three-run homer off the bullpen roof in left center.

Skubal, who is on a nine-start winning streak, ended up going six innings and striking out eight.

Perez brought the crowd to its feet twice in the top of the seventh, throwing out two runners at second base. The Athletics are going to have to change their scouting report.

Down three runs, Soderstrom hit a bullet over Perez’s head. Perez played it perfectly off the wall and fired a strike to second, shortstop Javier Baez applying a lightning-fast tag.

After Clarke dropped a broken-bat single into center, Wilson singled into the right-field corner. He, too, tried to sneak an extra bag on Perez, but Perez wheeled, threw another seed to second and Baez again applied the tag.

It will go in the books as a scoreless inning for reliever Chase Lee, even though he gave up three singles and recorded only one out himself.

Perez ignited the crowd again in the bottom of the seventh. This time with his wheels.

Riley Greene and Perez were on first and second with two outs. Zach McKinstry, against lefty reliever Hogan Harris, lined a single to left. Third base coach Joey Cora waved Greene home, even though left fielder Soderstrom had the ball as Greene was rounding third.

But catcher Austin Wynns missed the one-hop throw and the ball went to the backstop.

Not only did Greene score, but Perez, who never stopped running, scored right behind him.

It was another huge night for Greene, too. After going 6 for 10 in Tampa, Fla., over the weekend, he contributed four hits, two runs and two RBI Tuesday. He raised his average to .299 and has 11 games with at least three hits, tied for most in the American League.

The Tigers became the first team to 50 wins and the first team in the American League to score 400 runs.

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