Tarik Skubal continued his brilliant month of September with seven shutout innings, Andy Ibanez drove in two runs with a triple and a single, and the visiting Detroit Tigers rolled past the Oakland Athletics 7-3 in the opener of a four-game series Thursday night.Matt Vierling and Spencer Torkelson scored twice apiece for the Tigers (72-81), who remained a half-game behind the Cleveland Guardians in their duel for second place in the American League Central.Skubal (7-3) ran his record to 4-0 in September and lowered his ERA to 1.04 in those games with the second scoreless outing in his last three starts. He limited the A’s (46-107) to a pair of singles while striking out 10 and walking one.Making his major-league debut, Brenan Hanifee allowed Oakland’s three runs in the ninth, the last two coming on Brent Rooker’s 28th homer with two outs.Every pitch thrown by a Tiger was made with a lead after the club greeted Luis Medina (3-10) with a two-run first. Vierling led off the game with a double and Ibanez capped the uprising with his run-scoring triple.The visitors broke the game open in the fifth with some help from the A’s. Vierling singled home Parker Meadows, who had singled, before a throwing error by Rooker in right field and a balk by Medina produced two more runs for a 5-0 lead.Medina was pulled after five innings, charged with five runs (four earned) on six hits. He walked one and struck out five.