Tigers Walkoff Winners and Losers: Assessing Best, Worst After Six Games

The Detroit Tigers are returning to town with a losing record, which was certainly not the hope when they made their first west coast swing of the season.

The Tigers (2-4) started the season in San Diego and then moved on to face the Arizona Diamondbacks, where they lost all three games. With the loss to San Diego on Sunday, the Tigers have lost their last four games.

Detroit hopes to start a turnaround this weekend when they host the St. Louis Cardinals for a three-game series. After six games, here are three players that acquitted themselves well during the first week of the season, along with three players that have some work to do.

Winners

Kevin McGonigle in MLB Debut:

4-5, 2 1B, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, DET WIN #Tigers
pic.twitter.com/vE0zDDfaAi
— Milb Central (@milb_central) March 26, 2026

Kevin McGonigle

The rookie had a terrific start to what could be an American League rookie of the year season, though it’s really early to start throwing that around. He slashed .364/.440/.545 with two doubles, a triple and six RBI. The only thing he didn’t do was hit his first career home run. Must be saving that for Detroit. Notably, he drew as many walks as strikeouts — three each. That’s good plate discipline for someone that never took an at-bat at Triple-A.

Colt Keith

The third-year pro is off to a terrific start. He finished the road trip with a slash of .364/.417/.545 with four doubles and two RBI. He didn’t have quite the walk to strikeout ratio that McGonigle had the first week, but he kept it to six strikeouts in 22 at-bats. He also gave the Tigers some solid corner infielder versatility, as he worked at both first base and third base. Keith has averaged 13 home runs in each of his first two seasons. Detroit is hoping to squeeze a bit more power out of him this year.

Tarik Skubal

The left-hander was his typical self in his two starts. He went 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA in 13 innings. He allowed nine hits, one earned run and no walks along with nine strikeouts. He was a hard-luck loser in his return to Arizona (he’s a Kingman native) and a seven-inning gem in front of family and friends. It just didn’t lead to a Tigers win. He can’t do it all.

Losers

Justin Verlander

The legend got worked over in his first start against Arizona on Monday. He was unable to get out of the fourth inning as he took the loss and exited the game with a 12.27 ERA. He had six hits, five earned runs and two walks against one strikeout. He also had a 2.18 WHIP. No one was expecting vintage Verlander. But that was a big setback for a starter that most believe still has something left in the tank.

Kerry Carpenter

Carpenter finished the road trip with a slash of .091/.200/.091 with an RBI. He had just two hits. Alarmingly, he has 12 strikeouts in his 22 official at-bats. While he drew three walks, a strikeout rate of more than 50% isn’t going to cut it long term. He isn’t the only hitter on the team with a strikeout problem. But his rate was by far the highest on the team after six games.

Will Vest

Of the three closers, Vest had the worst week. If there’s good news it was wrapped up in one appearance on Tuesday. He gave up one hit, three earned runs and two walks in 0.2 innings. He comes home with a 0-1 record and a 13.50 ERA. Before that, he threw 1.1 innings of scoreless relief without allowing a hit. One could write off the outing on Tuesday as a one-off but we’ll see.