Skubal pitches three dominating innings in win against Red Sox
LAKELAND, Fla. – The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1, on Monday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.
The Tigers are 6-4-1 in Grapefruit League play.
What happened
Left-hander Tarik Skubal, in his first start since being named the Opening Day starter, looked untouchable.
He almost was.
“I mean, Tarik is a complete pitcher,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He was very, very good today, as we would expect. Power stuff. Great secondary stuff. Kind of breezed through his innings.”
A bloop double in the first inning should have been caught by one of three defenders, but after David Hamilton’s leadoff blooper, the Red Sox couldn’t get a hit for the remainder of Skubal’s start. To put it in perspective, the Red Sox swung the bat 22 times against Skubal — and missed 14 times, plus five fouls and three balls in play.
“I don’t think anything about the game is easy,” Skubal said. “It was hot today. That’s what I felt. I had to stay hydrated. The game is hard, and it’s about executing pitches, and I thought I did a good job of that.”
The Tigers scored the go-ahead run in the fifth inning, snapping a 1-1 tie.
There were runners on the corners with two outs when a wild pitch in three-ball count from left-handed reliever Joe Jacques allowed Matt Vierling to score standing up from third base.
Starting off
Skubal completed three scoreless innings with zero walks and six strikeouts.
All six of his strikeouts: Ceddanne Rafaela (swinging, 96.4 mph sinker), Reese McGuire (swinging, 97.2 mph fastball), Bobby Dalbac (swinging, 98.6 mph fastball), Jamie Westbrook (swinging, 98.8 mph fastball), Romy Gonzalez (looking, 95.7 mph sinker) and Dalton Guthrie (foul tip, 86 mph changeup).
“When you’re getting swing-and-miss on heaters down in the zone and then up in the
zone,” Skubal said, “that kind of tells you that you got a good fastball that day. I was able to exploit that a little bit. I threw a lot of fastballs, a lot more than what’s standard.”
Skubal struck out the side in the third inning, sending down Westbrook, Gonzalez and Guthrie. He threw 28 of 41 pitches for strikes. The only hit — Hamilton’s double — had a 70.2 mph exit velocity.
Hamilton, though, was caught stealing third base by catcher Jake Rogers for the second out in the first inning. Rogers received an
up-and-away fastball from Skubal, popped to his feet and threw the ball on a rope to the front of third base.
Third baseman Gio Urshela applied the tag, just in time.
“That’s a plus to plus-plus runner,” Hinch said. “It certainly helps to get out of an inning that way. We’ll certainly complement Jake, believe it or not.”
Skubal threw 19 fastballs, eight sinkers, seven changeups, four sliders and three curveballs. The 27-year-old generated his 14 whiffs with seven fastballs, two sinkers, four changeups and one slider.
His fastball and sinker accounted for 65.9% of his pitches.
“Spring training is so interesting because it’s not a traditional scouting report,” Skubal said. “I leave everything up to Rog, so whatever he calls, very rarely am I going to shake, unless I don’t think I can throw it in the strike zone. Rog called a great game.”
At the plate
The Tigers scored first in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Javier Báez, following back-to-back singles from Mark Canha and Colt Keith.
Báez pulled the 95 mph fastball from righthander Josh Winckowski to left field with a 105.1 mph exit velocity, but he remains without a hit through 13 trips to the plate in spring training.
The Tigers finished with four hits, one each from Rogers, Canha, Keith and Andy Ibáñez. The Tigers also got walks from Vierling, Riley Greene, Akil Baddoo and Justyn-Henry Malloy (twice).
On the mound
Right-hander Ty Madden, a top pitching prospect, covered the sixth and seventh innings. He tossed two scoreless innings on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts, throwing 22 of 39 pitches for strikes.
Madden generated seven whiffs with four fastballs and three sliders.
His fastball averaged 96.2 mph.
“He’s got really good stuff,” Hinch said. “It’s a legit breaking ball. It’s a legit power fastball. We’re urging him to work on that changeup because he’s going to get a ton of left-handed hitters eventually.”
The Tigers also pitched left-hander Tyler Holton and right-hander Will Vest in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively. Holton gave up a solo home run to Rafaela on a firstpitch changeup with one out in the fourth inning, which was Boston’s lone run.
Vest retired all three batters he faced in the fifth inning.
Three stars
1. Skubal, 2. Rogers, 3. Madden.