Tarik Skubal's Performance Becomes Silver Lining in Latest Gut Wrenching Loss
Tarik Skubal wore a beaming smile while gazing up at pitching coach Rick Anderson in the Tigers dugout after his latest outing. The most recent post-start interaction between the two possessed all the qualities of a proud father-son moment, and rightfully so.
Skubal’s glowing performance included six innings of the most efficient and effective frames that we’ve seen from him thus far. To hang with Twins starter Kenta Maeda, the Tigers needed Skubal to piece together a performance equal to or greater than his last start, which produced his first career win.
Skubal superseded expectation going six innings, allowing only one earned run and two hits throughout a career-high 78 pitches. Ron Gardenhire departed the dugout with a stomach virus while Skubal and Maeda locked horns in a fixating pitchers’ duel.
Skubal watched innings seven, eight and nine from the dugout alongside fellow pitchers Matthew Boyd and Casey Mize.
The Tigers possessed a 3-2 lead heading into ninth, but an eerie feeling of deja vu crept into the air when a save opportunity presented itself to the bullpen for the second time in as many days.
Unable to hang on
The Tigers don’t have a definitive closer for the time being. The opportunity to close Saturday’s ninth-inning went to Jose Cisnero, who was searching for his first career save. With Runners on first and second with one out, Cisnero dealt a 1-2 heater to Miguel Sano, who sharply grounded through the left side to drive home the tying run.
The Twins were down to their final out when the stage was set for Byron Buxton’s theatrical at-bat with two down and runners in scoring position. A grounder to short, followed by a 3.8-second mad-dash down the line was enough to beat out W. Castro's throw and walk-off a 4-3 Minnesota win on an infield RBI single.
“Our last four losses have been gut-wrenching losses for us,’’ bench coach Lloyd McClendon said. “We’re actually playing pretty good baseball, and that’s the perception-and-reality of things. You lose four in a row and people think you’re going into the tank, but the fact is, we’ve played pretty good baseball.’’
The last three Tigers losses have come by a total of just four runs combined. Saturday’s defeat marked the second consecutive blown save for Detroit.
The bright side
The silver lining, if you will, came in the form of Tarik Skubal’s night to remember. The southpaw became the first Tigers pitcher to record a quality start at age 23 or younger since fellow left-hander Daniel Norris did so in 2017.
Skubal faced the minimum through three innings, mixing in a curve, slider and slightly tweaked changeup right out of the gate. The newly acquired grip on his changeup proved to be effective. Skubal used less of his slider this time around(13%), and went to the changeup 18% of the time, which accounted for second-most to his fastball (60%).
“I actually changed the whole pitch this week in between starts, just because I wasn’t liking where it was at,’’ Skubal said. “Changed it up a little bit, and I got some positive feedback. I did leave some elevated in the zone, but that’s just execution. I liked where that pitch was at today.’’
Radiating confidence, Skubal managed to record seven swings and misses throughout a spotless first trip through the order. To provide some context, he recorded a total of six in his entire five-inning start last time out.
“He’s starting to settle in,’’ McClendon said. “I think the goosebumps are gone and the sweaty palms are gone. He’s starting to believe that he belongs, and that’s important. You see it in the tempo. You can see it in his mannerisms. He’s throwing the ball a lot better.’’
Skubal’s fellow 23-year-old Casey Mize (0-1, 6.75 ERA) will face 40-year-old veteran Rich Hill (1-1, 3.94 ERA) on Sunday.
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