Tarik Skubal Turns in Historic Performance to Push Tigers Past Guardians in Game 1
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The Detroit Tigers needed Tarik Skubal to be their superstar ace in Game 1.
After they blew the largest division lead in Major League Baseball history to the Cleveland Guardians, all sights were set on getting redemption in the Wild Card round. Skubal stated he was ready for the moment, and with the team and the entire city needing an elite performance from an elite player, he delivered exactly that.
Skubal was beyond elite on Tuesday, though. He was historic. The left-hander went 7 2/3 innings where he allowed one run on three hits with a career-high 14 strikeouts. While he did walk three batters, it was about as dominant of a performance that has been seen in a playoff baseball setting.
Historic outing from a historic player.
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 30, 2025
👏 @TarikSkubal pic.twitter.com/1m4gPaPGY6
In fact, nobody in the history of the Tigers franchise has stuck out more batters in a single postseason outing than Skubal, as he tied the team's all-time playoff record with his 14 K's.
The dominance was on full display throughout the outing. He fanned two batters in the first inning before not punching one out in the second. But after that, he was virtually unhittable. He rung up two batters each in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth frames before striking out the side in the seventh.
At one point, Skubal retired 11 straight batters where eight of them were by strikeout. That included a span of five in a row over a lineup that is known to battle with a strikeout rate that put them 15th in the MLB during the regular season.
Tigers Beat Guardians 2-1 to Take Game 1
Perhaps the most impressive part of Skubal's performance wasn't the historic 14 K's he had or the complete control over the opposing lineup that he possessed. But it was his ability to pitch that way in such a tight game.
That's because the Tigers did not provide much run support for their ace. After getting on the board in the first inning on a Spencer Torkelson RBI single, it was tough sledding for the offense the rest of the way.
Guardians starter Gavin Williams struck out eight batters, where many of them were on taken pitches or ones that made the Detroit hitters look foolish with chases out of the zone. The team went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left six on base, squandering multiple opportunities to break this contest open by giving Skubal a multiple run advantage.
They did scrape across what proved to be a game-winning run in the top of the seventh when Riley Greene doubled for the lone extra-base hit of the contest and he was driven in by a sacrifice bunt following a throwing error that moved him over to third base. But the lack of offensive almost came back to bit them in the bottom of the ninth inning.
That's because with Will Vest in looking for a four-out save, Cleveland's superstar Jose Ramirez ripped a ball up the middle of the field that forced Javier Baez into making a diving stop. From the ground, he threw it to Torkelson at first. It was a ball that should have been dug out, but instead, it kicked off the slugger's glove and resulted in Ramirez standing on third base with nobody out.
Plenty of Tigers fans have seen that story before, especially in this matchup against the Guardians. But it was different this time around, as Vest battled back to strike out the pinch-hitting George
Valera and then made an incredible play to field a comebacker and run Ramirez down to eliminate the threat at third base.
WILL VEST ERASES THE THREAT! #POSTSEASON pic.twitter.com/FtxDotsTIq
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2025
Vest then closed things out by getting the final batter of the game to pop out, securing the Tigers a Game 1 victory that has them on the doorstep of eliminating their archrivals who have had their number over the years.
But all of this comes back to Skubal. He was simply sensational with how he dominated the Guardians, using his electric stuff to put on a historic display that won't be forgotten for a long time. Detroit still has more work to do and they'll need their offense to wake up if they are going to win this series, but the first step has been accomplished as the Tigers try to get to the next round.
