Sunday Night Showcase: Tarik Skubal Deals the Heat

On a steamy Sunday night at Comerica Park, with temperatures hovering at 86 degrees at first pitch, Tarik Skubal brought the real heat.

The Tigers’ ace was electric under the national spotlight, mowing down Minnesota hitters with ruthless efficiency. Through seven scoreless innings, Skubal carved up the Twins lineup with 13 strikeouts, allowing just two hits and a walk while rarely finding himself in trouble.

From the start, Skubal established his dominance. He struck out Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa in the opening frame, setting the tone for the night. In the second inning, he struck out the side: Willi Castro, Ty France, and Harrison Bader, all swinging, as his fastball played up and his slider bit hard down and away.

By the third inning, Skubal was in full command, punching out Brooks Lee, Jonah Bride, and Christian Vázquez consecutively to record six straight strikeouts over two innings. Even when Minnesota managed a single in the fifth, Skubal quickly extinguished any hope of a rally by striking out Bader and Lee to end the frame.

He continued to overpower the Twins in the later innings, striking out Correa for the second time in the seventh and freezing Ty France with a called third strike to end his night on a definitive note. He was able to go to four different pitches tonight.

“You know, for a while, I didn’t know what I was watching,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He was punching out so many guys in a row, I didn’t know if it was going to end. Just an incredible performance.”

“I thought we saw some really good breaking balls, but he’s going to be proud of that because he’s been working on trying to land it for a free strike,” Hinch added. “With so many people around the league just coming up, trying to ambush him and trying to make contact early, that’s the creative part. Like, that’s not his arsenal ton. It’s a fourth pitch, which is hard to go away from the elite side of his stuff. But he mixed in a couple of those. The changeup was phenomenal tonight. And when he found his aiming points, his cues, he locked it in, and he was not only dominant but efficient.”

Skubal set a team record with his performance, becoming the first Tigers pitcher in franchise history to record 11 or more strikeouts at home five times in one season. He broke the record previously held by Mickey Lolich, who did it four times in 1971.

After the game, Skubal acknowledged the growing expectations that come with his dominance but emphasized his focus remains simple.

“I appreciate the expectation from the fan base or whoever’s watching me play, but I just want to win – that’s all that matters to me,” Skubal said. “I want the fans to expect the best out of me because that’s what I expect out of myself. We’re trying to do the same thing here. They want to win, and I want to win just as bad.”

He added that while he didn’t feel those expectations two or three years ago, he embraces them now. “If I have a bad one or whatever, it’s not a big deal. I expect better out of myself, too, just like everybody else does.”

Based on the sold out crowd at Comerica Park tonight, the fans got want they expected.

The Tigers improved to 53-32 on the season and will head to the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Nationals starting Tuesday.

Tigers post-game notes:

• Dillon Dingler recorded his 13th multi-hit game of the season with two singles against Minnesota.

• Tarik Skubal continued his dominant stretch, improving to 5-0 in his last five starts. Over that span, he has posted a 1.89 ERA (33.1 IP, 7 ER) with 39 strikeouts, seven walks, and just 24 hits allowed.

• Kerry Carpenter exited after his triple due to his hamstring flaring up, an issue that also bothered him earlier in the outfield. He will undergo an MRI tomorrow.
  “The staff here has done a great job of getting me back pretty quickly, so we’ll see how it goes,” Carpenter said. “But I think we’re all pretty optimistic about it.”