Tigers 2, Rangers 1: Skubalriffic!

Our resident ace dominated the dojo and paved the way for a narrow Tigers victory.

Fresh off their 7-3 road trip — which, let’s face it, after those first two games in Houston, did not look like it was going to go well — the Detroit Tigers headed home, mowed the lawn, paid the gas bill, got some groceries, and squeaked out a 2-1 win to open a three-game weekend series against the Texas Rangers . (And yes, the Tigers still have the best record in Major-League Baseball.)

Your 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal, made his eighth start of the season for Detroit. Compared with last year he’s been giving up, on average, one more hit per nine innings this year, but he’s made up for that by walking fewer batters. His WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched, a rough idea of his effectiveness) coming into today was still a very-respectable 0.984, and his FIP (fielding-independent pitching, basically your expected ERA based only on strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed) was actually down a touch from last year. So, same ol’ Tarik out there, more or less, but over his last six years he’s really hit a new gear.

Facing Skubal was Patrick Corbin, who you might best know from the 2019 Washington Nationals , to which he contributed mightily en route to the franchise’s first World Series victory. Since then it’s been iffy for Corbin; his lowest WHIP since was a middling 1.468 in 2021, he’ll give up a bunch of home runs, and there’s generally a lot of traffic on the basepaths. What he’s done this year, though, is generally limited hard contact: last year his Hard Hit Rate was a whopping 46.9%, but this year it’s down to 31.7% (league-average is about 39%). He had himself a pretty solid start tonight, as you’ll see.

Skubal was sizzling right from the start, striking out a pair in the first inning and touching triple-digits (100 mph, 161 km/h) with his fastball. Stuff like that was going to be pretty tough for a struggling Texas lineup to deal with.

In the bottom of the second, after a Spencer Torkelson walk and a Colt Keith grounder exchanged Keith for Torkelson as the runner on first, Dillon Dingler smacked a double into left that was misplayed by Wyatt Langford, allowing Keith to score all the way from first for a 1-0 Detroit lead.

Skubal carried on cutting through the Texas lineup like a really sharp Japanese knife through a block of tofu. For the third out of the fourth inning he broke out his first (and only) knuckle-curve of the night, completely bamboozling Jonah Heim for strike three. It was a dozen up and a dozen down for the Rangers to that point, who had swung-and-missed 17 times.

In the bottom of the fourth Riley Greene walked (on a gift of a ball-four), and stole second base. Keith then smacked a single to centre, scoring Greene to put Detroit up 2-0.

There was an odd moment in the fifth, as Marcus Semien fouled off the first pitch of his at-bat and home plate umpire Malachi Moore, and the entire umpiring crew, somehow missed it. It was more than a foul tip, and Skubal was not happy about the missed call. AJ Hinch had to intervene and do the kvetching to avoid his starter getting tossed. In the end it mattered little as Skubal retired Semien on a ground out.

The Rangers got their first hit and their first baserunner to lead off the sixth, as Josh Smith singled to left. Skubal then plunked Ezequiel Duran, which put runners on first and second with none out. After a strikeout, Sam Haggerty hit a flair to right field which scored Smith, narrowing the lead to 2-1. However, another strikeout (his tenth of the night) and a forceout got the Tigers out of the inning without any further damage.

Skubal cruised through the seventh inning, striking out Adolis García and Marcus Semien swinging, and coaxing a grounder to second out of Jace Jung’s brother to finish his day. His final line: a mighty-fine 7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K. Skubal’s 32 whiffs were just six shy of the all-time MLB record.

Tommy “The Changeup” Kahnle took over for the eighth and surrendered but a harmless single.

And hey, Corbin was no slouch either: despite his not-so-great under-the-surface stats (his ERA is solid but his FIP and WHIP are lousy), he had a pretty good outing, giving up only a pair of runs — but walking four — in seven innings. The Tigers had a quick turnaround after playing a doubleheader on Thursday and getting into Detroit late, but either way they weren’t dropping a baker’s dozen on him like they almost did in Colorado a couple of times this week.

Will Vest came on in the ninth to nail down the game, and he got Langford to ground out, struck out Heim on a slider, and got García to fly out to Báez in centre to end the game.

Game Two of the series will start at 6:10 pm EDT on Saturday, with Jack Flaherty facing Jacob de Grom. Should be a good one.

Stats and Notes

• After Tarik Skubal’s clunker of a start in Seattle, and through tonight’s game, in 6 starts and 37 IP, he has walked one batter and struck out 50. I’m no mathematician but that’s a 50:1 ratio of strikeouts to walks.
• Who’d he walk? The not-the-easiest-to-walk Maikel Garcia , of course.
• If you predicted “Javier Báez is playing stellar centrefield and hitting .317 with an .835 OPS in the second week of May and is tied for the team lead in bWAR” before the season started, well then, whoever made your crystal ball did a mighty fine job.
• As you may have heard and read , former Tiger Chet Lemon has passed away. Early in the very first game I ever attended at Tiger Stadium, Lemon played in centre and made what, at the time, looked to be a sensational diving catch (it turned out that he’d trapped it). I’d never heard a crowd get so loud before, and I’ll never forget the euphoria I felt witnessing that (attempted) catch. Fare thee well, Chester.
• Ashley’s Friday Open Thread asks what your preferred walk-up music would be. Mine has always been “Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer ” by AC/DC.
• On this day in 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Enovid as the first-ever oral contraceptive. The availability of “The Pill” was a social and political catalyst which is still hotly debated today in some places.