Confidence still intact
Skubal falters in Tigers’ win, but shows he’s a Cy Young candidate Tigers’ offense picks up Tarik Skubal in win over A’s in home opener
No, Tarik Skubal didn’t scuttle his Cy Young chances Friday afternoon at Comerica Park. I can’t believe I had to write that sentence.
But it had to be written, mostly for folks who think the Detroit Tigers ace should’ve been lights out on Opening Day against the Oakland A’s, lest he ruin his season ...
... in his second start.
Yeah, yeah, it’s an absurd proposition, right? But then this is where sports debates are these days, where some need to have a scalding take after a pitcher’s second outing.
So, here’s mine:
This. Was. His. Second. Outing.
Here’s another take: Skubal won’t throw a nohitter every time he takes the mound.
Now, was he happy with his outing on Opening Day? When he gave up three runs and was responsible for four?
Of course, he wasn’t. He was lights out for 52⁄3 innings and then hung a slider over the plate to Brent Rooker. The A’s outfielder lifted it some 350 feet over the left field fence. A runner happened to be on second base and with one two-out swing, Oakland cut the Tigers lead to 3-2.
After striking out Shea Langeliers to end the sixth, A.J. Hinch gave Skubal another inning, or at least the chance to eat one. The Tigers had played 20 innings of baseball Thursday in New York and Skubal said his game plan on Opening Day was to “eat” as many innings as he could to help save the bullpen.
In the seventh, though, Skubal’s velocity began
Tarik Skubal pitched with confidence.
Skubal, a hard-throwing left-hander who commands American League Cy Young attention, started for the Detroit Tigers in Friday’s home opener against the Oakland Athletics at Comerica Park. He had swagger like a pitcher in complete control, striking out Shea Langeliers with a highvelocity fastball to finish his first inning of work and backpedaling his way to the dugout.
The Tigers beat the Athletics, 5-4, but not without help from Skubal’s teammates.
“You got to stack wins when you have the opportunity,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’ve been good in close games so far. It’s a dangerous way to live because close games can flip in a heartbeat, so you want to keep pushing to separate yourself and give yourself some breathing room ... but we do have a resilient group.”
Doubles from Spencer Torkelson and Gio Urshela snapped a tie game in the eighth inning, and after the Tigers jumped in front, left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin and right-handed reliever Alex Lange slammed the door on the A’s in the ninth inning.
Skubal spent a lot of time backpedaling in his second start of the season, racking up nine strikeouts across 6 ⁄ innings, but he gave up four runs in his final 11⁄3 innings. The Athletics snapped Skubal’s scoreless streak at 22 innings, dating back to last season, in the sixth inning with Brent Rooker’s home run.
It wasn’t easy, but the Tigers (6-1) had fun in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,711 fans in the first 2024 game at Comerica Park. Matt Vierling and Mark Canha launched solo home runs, while Torkelson and Riley Greene each drove in one run.
“The fact that we’re winning the close games is
to dip, and what had been 95-97 mph on his fastball fell to 92-93. The drop in pop came because he lost a bit of command and had to battle hitters into deeper counts.
“When you’ve got to throw heaters because you’re getting behind a lot, that’s something that I don’t like doing,” he said.
Hinch thought Skubal got tired, though Skubal didn’t use that word to him.
“He just started to get a little bit erratic and a little bit loose with the strike zone,” said Hinch. “They put a couple good swings on him that left the ballpark which obviously changed the scoreboard, and then I thought he fatigued at the end.”
It happens. Even to the best pitchers, and Skubal has the stuff and a few months of dominance late last season to suggest he can be among the best in the American League.
Four runs in 61⁄3 innings isn’t ideal, nor the stuff of Cy Young dreams. But he looked dominant until the sixth-inning slide.
As Hinch noted, “he threw strike after strike after strike. Then he’d get a little bit of chase, which counts as a strike when they swing.”
On most days — or nights — a three-run lead in the sixth inning with Skubal on the mound should be enough. And while the Tigers beat the A’s, 5-4, they had to grind out a run in the eighth to retake the lead and then hold on from there.
They’ll take it, obviously. So will Skubal, whose first words in the postgame reporter scrum when asked how he felt were:
“We won. So, it doesn't really matter how I felt. That's the biggest thing from today’s game. So, I'll take it.”
He sounded like so many athletes do when their teams win despite their own uneven performances. Grateful to be picked up by their teammates, frustrated at not meeting their own standard.
And Skubal has a standard. Yes, a Cy Young standard. And why wouldn’t he?
Lefties who throw 97 and paint the strike zone and mix speeds like he does should be Cy Young aspirers. Consider Skubal’s numbers from last fall, when he was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for September and October: 4-0 (OK, wins aren’t a real stat), 0.90 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 43 strikeouts.
Those are ace-like numbers. But no ace sustains such numbers over a season. They’ll days like Friday. They’ll have outings where they make it look easy for five innings, and then lose a touch of command and, thus, velocity, and give up a few hits, and runs.
Unfortunately for Skubal, two of the three hits he gave up in the sixth and seventh innings were home runs. If that becomes a habit down the road, then yeah, it’s not ideal.
Yet based on what Skubal showed last season, and what he showed last week in Chicago when he tossed six innings of scoreless ball on the White Sox’s Opening Day, the Tigers’ ace has the stuff, sometimes even on the days when he eventually loses the stuff, which is why he still struck out nine Friday afternoon.
He’s also got the swag, the confidence, as he showed when he backpedaled off the mound a few times after watching teammates make a third out. It reminded of a shooter backpedaling before the shot goes in because they know it’s going in.
“I’m very confident,” Skubal said. “(Friday’s) results aside, I’m very confident in myself. The stat line I don't think shows everything.”
Of course, it doesn’t; the stat line is only two games long. How much can we extrapolate from that?
Wait, don’t answer that. I’ll do it for you: We can’t. Nor should we, not when Skubal’s got another 30 starts to go or so. Which is to say he’s got almost the entire season.
Of course, he does. Friday, after all, was only Opening Day.