Detroit Tigers Rookie of the Year Candidate Fires Best Start of Young Career
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The Detroit Tigers are off to a hot start as they look to return to the playoffs in 2025. They are 9-5 through their first 14 games, and they sit in first place in the American League Central.
On Saturday afternoon, the Tigers took on the Minnesota Twins in the second game of a three-game set.
Detroit opened the contest with a sacrifice fly from Spencer Torkelson to take the early lead. The Tigers followed that up with another sacrifice fly from Justyn-Henry Malloy in the fourth inning. In the sixth inning, Torkelson hit his fourth home run of the year to take extend the lead to 4-0.
That is where the score would end as the star of the show came from the Tigers' starting pitcher.
Jackson Jobe made his third start of the season, and it was his best yet.
The rookie fired six shutout innings, allowed just two hits and struck out two batters.
The first frame started a bit rough as Jobe walked the first batter of the game, while the second batter hit an infield single. After that happened, the right-hander retired the next 13 batters. To end his outing, he set down 17 of the final 18 batters that came to the plate.
In fact, he faced the minimum amount of hitters after the infield single.
In the win, Jobe was up to 98.0 mph with his four-seam fastball and he averaged 97.0 mph with the pitch. That is 0.9 mph up from his season average.
The best part of his arsenal was the cutter, though.
Jackson Jobe, Disgusting Cutters. 🤮 pic.twitter.com/8kQL95Nzir
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 12, 2025
Jobe was able to get eight whiffs in the game and five came from the cutter. He threw the pitch 27 times in the game, which was the same amount of times he threw the fastball. The average exit velocity on his cutter was just 86.6 mph.
The former first-round pick earned the first win of his career in the game, and it was his first start going more than 5.0 innings.
Jobe is a true candidate for the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
Saturday's outing only solidified his spot at the top of the race.
The 22-year-old has been able to pitch better in every start. He has gone longer in each outing and his command was the best it has been this season.
Detroit needs their top prospect to continue to pitch this way if they want remain at the top team in the AL Central.
Saturday was Jobe's best start of the year, but this type of game could become a common occurrence for him.
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Cameron Zunkel is a sports writer from the western suburbs of Chicago. He played Division-II baseball at the University of Illinois at Springfield where he earned a masters degree in Communication. Cameron also played independent league baseball for the Joliet Slammers and Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League. He has been in journalism for the better part of two years now, and has a passion for baseball specifically. His other work includes writing sports betting articles for ClutchPoints. In his free time, you can catch Cam at the gym, on the golf course, or coaching the youth in the beautiful sport of baseball.