Detroit Tigers take Game One of the AL Wild Card Round: Tarik Skubal with a Historic Performance

Detroit Tigers take Game One of the AL Wild Card Round: Tarik Skubal with a Historic Performance

Trick Scooble has saved my life. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Locked On Tigers, a playoff edition of Locked On Tigers. I am, of course, your host, Scott Bentley. Today is Wednesday, October 1st, 2025. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off of your first purchase. This episode is also brought to you by TK effing school. I I I wreak, dude. Like I I sweat through like all my clo That was that was so just excruciating a and painful and so worth it. And TK Scooble was the man in the arena, man. Genuinely, he’s the one. like he he was the one. That is one of the best performances you will ever see and that is one of the best performances by a Detroit Tigers pitcher in the history over 120 year history of this organization. The Tigers win two to one. They’re up one- nothing and a series that’s just a race to two wins. And the series that wins game one historically almost always wins these best of three playoff series. Now it’s only a few years sample size. The Tigers have already like no one in Detroit cares. The Tigers have already had one of the biggest collapses, the biggest collapse in the history of baseball. Nobody here cares about, you know, the odds being in the Tigers favor. You’re going to take it one game at a time. But this was such an important win for so many reasons. One is just simply you can’t waste a terubble start of that magnitude, right? You cannot waste an outing like that and thankfully they did not and they get a win. Two, I I think it’s also a little bit of a like monkey off the back situation. Cleveland has crushed you not only this year, not only in the last just like three weeks, they’ve crushed you for the better part of a decade. And now you have a series lead in Cleveland and you’ve proven that you can just win a freaking baseball game over there against these guys. Maybe to yourself more so than anything else. Like you you’ve proven that you can win. No matter how ugly it was, you won. And third, and and by far the most important point is if you lost this game, I I think the series was over. Um, and not just because again of like the the likelihood and the past stats of the series, but because of the Tigers are constructed, right? So many times this year and when they got off to that great start in the first half, it was because they were winning the first game of series almost every time. the first half of the season they their record in game one of series was just ridiculously high and especially when you have TK Scubble going in game one this team just can’t afford to not win pretty much every time he goes out there and thankfully he’s so good that they honestly usually do but if you lost this game with TK school on the mound that there’s really I don’t think there was any recovering from that I think you were absolutely screwed food. So, I’m not saying you have to have the utmost confidence in the world. I’m not saying you have to walk around and and talk to your, you know, friends from Ohio and talk about how it’s like, oh, you know, we’re series is over, whatever. Not saying that. I’m certainly not acting like that. I’m not moving like that. Okay? All I’m saying is you at least are giving yourself a chance to now win the series where if you lost this game, I genuinely don’t think you would have. I think all of the life would have been sucked out of the the fan base and this team and you’re pretty much would have just been marching to your death. This was a huge win, a huge moment, a huge performance by the best pitcher on the planet and that is exactly what you need out of your ace. There’s not too many guys breathing on planet Earth that could do what Trick Scooble just did legitimately. And now you have the Guardians on the ropes. Now, I will also say this, you have to finish them in game two. I guess have to is maybe too strong. Obviously, they could drop game two and then win game three, but you you do not want to give this Cleveland team any sort of life or momentum. They have proven to just take it and run every time you have given them even a a sliver of hope. I do not want Flity in game three in Cleveland with Cleveland coming off of a win in game two. I I I do not want that whatsoever. End it in two games. Do not play with your food. Go out there, win a ball game, and go get ready for Seattle. Obviously, winning game one is a huge step to winning in just two games. This was a must-win game and the Tigers ended up winning. So fantastic. What went right? We’re not burying the lead. We’ve already talked about a lot. Obviously, TK Scubble seven and two/3 innings, three hits, one earned run, three walks, and 14 strikeouts. His RA in the postseason is now 117 in 2025. So there you go. Obviously, just this outing that is tied for the most strikeouts in a playoff game by a Detroit Tigers pitcher in the history of this organization. Joe Coleman in the 1972 ALCS against the Oakland Athletics also had 14 strikeouts. I think it was game three. Those are the only two gentlemen that have ever rocked an Old English D in a playoff game and recorded 14 strikeouts in the history of the world. He’s the best breathing. He He’s the He’s the best pitcher on the planet. Trick Scooble won you this game. The Tigers offense had zero earned runs, dude. Zero earned runs. But TK Scubble is a monster. Not only is that tied for one of the best postseason, well tied for the most strikeouts in a postseason game in Tigers history, it’s obviously one of the best postseason performances you’ll ever see from a Detroit Tiger. It was also a careerhigh in strikeouts for TKO. This is the biggest game of the season up to this point and one of the what three or four biggest games that Terrick Scooel has ever pitched in his life and he had a careerhigh in strikeouts [Music] in August and in the first half of September. You know, I talked a lot on this show about how Scubble was was still good and was still great and was still one of the best pitchers on the planet. Still was very effective. The numbers were good, but the stuff had taken a little bit of a step back, right? We talked about that a few times in the second half. The velocity down a tick or two. I don’t think the movement really changed too much, but you know, fast ball was 96 instead of 100, right? Like, he’s still really good. If he was taking something off, he was saving it for right now. That was 100 m an hour. It was 100 miles an hour all game. It was 90 mph change ups. It was uh incredible movement and spin on the curveball. It was a slider that was pretty tight and solid. I don’t like his slider very much. I don’t think he likes his slider very much. He gave up one hit on it. I think it was the only hit to the outfield was maybe on the slider. But regardless, like he is he he had everything working. in this game. 26 whiffs. Do you understand how how like almost uncomprehendable that is? In a playoff game, he had 26 swings and misses. Over half of his change ups were either called strikes or swinging strikes. CSW percentage on his change up over 50%. He is not even a real person in my eyes. It’s like how Alan Iver Iverson described seeing Michael Jordan. It’s like a person doesn’t even look real to me. That’s how I feel about TKO and he’s a Detroit Tiger. Okay, let’s keep talking about TK. Uh I I will continue to praise him. I you can call me a Homer or or whatever. I I don’t care. It’s deserved. We’ll do that. We will talk about the offense. We will talk about what went wrong. And then we’ll preview game two. Okay? We’ll do that right after this. First though, got to talk to you’all about our friends over at game time. Game time is the best in the business. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. the energy, the crowd, the chance to see your team in person, but actually getting the tickets. 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As always, make us your first listen every single day. Shout out to the everydayers that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow recapping game two of the wildcard series. Today though, we talk and celebrate a game one win where TK Scuba was absolutely dominant. Um, only had one hit allowed that was out of the infield as I mentioned. Um, this is what you need from your best player. This is why he’s going to get 400 plus million dollars. This is why only a again a few pitchers in baseball can do this in the postseason. This is what franchise cornerstones do. This is what guys that you build around do. This is what I I mean, you look at the national media. What’s the biggest reason the Tigers have even been in the national media over the last two calendar years? It’s TKO. and on national TV in a playoff game with all eyes on him, even if it was one o’clock in the afternoon, which is so stupid, by the way. He showed out and did exactly what you needed from him. He put the team on his back quite literally. I had somebody get mad at my use of literally the other day. I guess the team didn’t, you know, actually climb on his back, but you get my point. absolute legend. This team is was was spiraling out of control, losing all its momentum, if not just lost all its momentum. Had a historic collapse attached to it, is facing a division rival that they have been terrible against for a decade. And it’s the postseason and Terrick Scuba with that train coming right at him did like the Incredible Hulk thing and just or Superman whoever did that. Some super Spider-Man some superhero did that just stopped it dead in its tracks. Will Vest was also absolutely fantastic. We will talk about other people, believe it or not, which like barely deserved on the offensive side of things, but Will Vest definitely deserves a shot. One and a third, one hit, no runs, no walks, and one strikeout erra this postseason. Obviously remains at zero. Um that was unbelievable. Like one thing that I will always trust with Will Vest is that he will stay in attack mode and keep his head on no matter what the situation is and no matter what is happening behind him. Uh you had J Ram on third with no outs in the ninth inning of a one-run playoff game. And he got out of it. He got out of it. No pitching change required. none of this, you know, oh, we’re gonna like do this and that and make a ton of changes. He went out there, he just locked horns with the offense and came out on top. Stayed focused and clamped it down. You know, another thing is like I I think that this is a nice reminder that the Guardians lineup is genuinely not that good outside of J Ram. Now, like I say that and they’ll score 15 tomorrow, but like their cleanup hitter in this game is hitting 170. I respect the Guardians organization a ton, man. I I don’t say that out of like division rival slander or trying to like talk smack. The their fan base all sees it and talks about it and has talked about it all season as well. And so I think it’s a nice reminder to the Tigers of like how can you not beat this team? Not to say that they’re an easy win. the opposite. Actually, they’re a very tough win because they play the game the right way, but this is a nice reminder. Also, it was nice to see a pitcher field his position well. I I I feel like it’s been, you know, four presidential administrations since I I’ve seen a a Tigers pitcher field his his pitch position correctly. My goodness. Might have even been more impressive than the pitching itself. It’s an actual miracle. I also, for what it’s worth, uh don’t disagree with J Ram running on contact there. Um you know, the the ball goes half an inch to the right or Will Vest bobbles it or anything like that, then Cleveland ties the game up. And again, they know that their offensive numbers are really bad. that they’re not like ignorant to that just because they’re the team. So, coaching knows that. And very similar to the Tigers, they’re going to be aggressive on the base pass and try to get runs scored because of that. Because they don’t trust the bats behind them. I I say that not from an ivory tower. We do the same thing. The Tigers have done the same thing all year and it’s worked really well for them. The last thing I want to talk about, speaking of the Guardians, uh, on the side of things that went right here, is you you kind of played guards ball a little bit. And that just feels so good. That feels so good. Right fielder bobbles a ball, you take an extra 90 ft, you score him. Bunting multiple times bunting in this game. AJ never bunts, but playoff baseball is different. AJ, you know, say what you will about him, okay? Say what you will about his his uh experience with the Astros and the cheating and all of that. He has managed a ton of playoff baseball and a ton of regular season baseball and knows the difference between the two. You have to scrape together every single run you can get. Zack McKinstry has not been hitting well for like three months now. Want to give a ton of credit to him. That was a beautiful bunt. Beautiful. Textbook safety squeeze there. They don’t ask how. Just get it freaking done. Now, what went wrong? The offense. Um one for eight with runners in scoring position. Zero earned runs in this ball game. zero earned runs from the Tigers offense. That is not going to get it done if you want to make a legitimate run in the postseason, obviously. And Scooble can’t pitch every day. You’re going to have to score some runs at some point, believe it or not. I know it’s a hot take. I do appreciate the small ball advancing of runners knowing that they can’t hit the ball. I appreciate also that Gavin Williams has like legitimately been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball since the All-Star break and I think he pitched phenomenal in this game. He he he threw a stellar ball game. Everything was working for you for him rather. But this team hasn’t hit very well in high leverage certainly in over a month. And the heart of this lineup still came up to bat multiple times in high leverage situations and did not come through outside of the Torque single in the very first inning. To set an RBI hit, Green struck out twice. Did have a double and a walk. The double he was a run scored on that Mckinstry bunt. But you are not going to get be able to get through the American League in this playoffs without getting those big hits or some home runs at some point. At one point in this game, you had two on, no out with Glaver up. You had two on, no out, right? Jav gets on, Parker Meadows walks. Two on, no out. You’re two, three, and four do up. Glaver grounds into a double play and next thing you know inning is over with zero outs and you had Williams on the ropes. He was missing the zone consistently. He was clearly rattled by the umpire which we’ll talk about in a second. You had his back against the wall and you did not cap capitalize and then next thing you know he goes six innings, eight strikeouts and doesn’t give up another run. Ultimately, they did enough to win and that’s all we care about. But it it would be disingenuous of me to just like not talk about the glaring issues that’s are still present and prevalent with this team defense. You you also can’t afford to do this defensively every game. You had the Oh my goodness. Let’s go to a break and then we’ll talk about the ninth inning. Okay, we’ll do that right after this. First though, got to talk to you about our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you won’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets. If you win, that’s right, pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love how FanDuel gives me so many ways to play, right? I’ve built parlays, tried player props, even followed live lines during games. Whether you’re a casual or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. All right, everybody. Welcome back. here. Third and final segment. Locked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. So, talking about what went wrong, uh the defense in this game almost cost you in a massive way. Okay. Um you you can’t afford to do that consistently either, especially against a Cleveland team that just lives for other teams mistakes. Okay. It’s how they score like all their runs. Javi makes a great diving play and then bounces a throw to Toklson. Not a good throw. Okay. Also, like on paper, a very easy scoop. Both screw up there and next thing you know, there’s a man on third with no outs in the ninth inning of a one-run game and everybody in Detroit is going to pass out or have a heart attack. Everyone. It’s like, oh my goodness, it’s actually happening again. Guards ball is actually going to kill this team for like the eighth time in two and a half weeks. Again, as we talked about earlier, thankfully it didn’t. Great play by Will Best. Did that textbook by the way. Fake the throw home. Go right at the runner. You don’t run to a bag. Okay? If if you’re a kid and you’re, you know, learning how to play baseball, that that’s how you handle a pickle situation. Okay? You go right at the runner. You do not give him space or time or go to a base and let him run back. You go for the runner. And he faked the throw to home to get JRAM to go back to third. Then chase J Ram down. Fakes the throw to third to get him to turn around and run straight into him for the tagout. Textbook perfection from Will Best. Trick Scoo on the other hand has now had multiple defensive mishaps in like his last two outings. I hate that he defended that ball where the Tigers scored their only run. That’s just not his ball. Simple as that. Now, in the moment, that’s it’s playoff atmosphere. You’re trying to get to everything. I get it. Okay. And ultimately, he again, he just put together one of the best performances a Detroit Tiger pitcher has literally ever had. Okay, so we’re we’re going to give him a break. But in the moment, that is just simply not his ball to field. And I think that if Jav or Glabber coming in on that chopper pick it up, then maybe the runner at third doesn’t even break for home. And if he does, I think you have a significantly better chance at getting him out. If not, just like a guarantee. Scoo, you know, basically underhanded that ball to home. He wanted to make sure it was accurate and took 30 miles an hour off of it. Got in there with a run to tie the ball game. I I really do think that if if Javi especially fields that ball that you have a much better chance on that play. You also the inning that he got pulled in the eighth, he could have turned two in that inning. Ball bounced out of his glove, only gets one. Doesn’t come back to bite him, but we could be talking about an eight inning performance. And heck, I mean, maybe even he gets out of that clean, he goes back out there for the night. Who knows? Who cares? Okay, the Tigers won. They just haven’t been very good defensively lately, especially in those, you know, infield situations like that. Um, so you got to limit those. That’s all I’m trying to say. Stuff the umpire I did not think was very good. I don’t think he was very good for either team, but I also think it’s very fair and accurate to say that the Tigers were the beneficiary far more than the Guardians were. Um, now I I also think I I believe you make your own luck with that kind of stuff. I talked about that with the Guardians a week ago, right, where I was like, “Oh, you know, everyone says the Tigers or the Guardians rather score all all their runs based on like this, you know, magic luck thing.” I think you make your own luck by putting the ball in play consistently, right? I think Terrick Scooble makes his own luck by being around the strike zone with elite stuff all the time. But I do think that the umpire had a rough night and I think that the Tigers were the beneficiary probably more than the Guardians were. Um, also just the play at the plate. I that was the most obvious safe call ever. I I have no clue how he was standing right over home plate and missed that call. Now, the big important thing that I want to talk about going into game two is not only did Terrick Scubel dominate, and that’s just awesome because he dominated this game, he also saved the entire bullpen. You are 10 on the road in a playoff series where you’re a win away from advancing and you only used one reliever in game one. Not only that, the pitcher you used in game one, Will Vest, can easily go again. He has pitched once in four days. You’re not saving him for anything. He’s pitched backtoback days all season. And if it’s in a win, then you have the next two days off at least anyways. Literally, he saved the entire bullpen with this performance. So, you now have an 100% rested pen, your number two starter, who we’ll talk about in a second, and you’re a win away from advancing to the ALDS. The Tigers playoff roster obviously was announced well before the game on Tuesday, but we have not had an episode since it was announced. We’ll talk about a little bit. Not too much dig out of it. Not a ton of surprises. Um, no Chris Paddock, I guess. Um, which is like not surprising, but noteworthy given the trade deadline. You have Justin Henry Malloy and Jamai Jones and Andy Abanz. Um, I think that that’s noteworthy. So, you have a platoon situation you could take advantage of pretty much anytime you want. Um, no Reese Olsen expected. Uh, no Colt Keith expected. No Matt Beerling expected. Um, from a non-injury point of view, the only even remote surprise is probably no Brennan Hannfi. A guy that AJ Hinch likes a lot, but uh, he feels comfortable with the righties that he has and wanted to make sure that he got multiple lefties in this bullpen for this series. So, um, those lefties outside of obviously Terk Scubble in starting rotation, but the only lefties in the bullpen, um, the only lefties outside of Terk Scooel, actually, are Brandt Hurder and Tyler Holton. And neither of them needed to pitch in game one, so we’ll take it. Jack Flity is your game three starter should there be a game three. Game two is Casey Mai against Tanner Bbeby. Mai’s on Saturday, last Saturday that is, legitimately had one of the best outings I’ve ever seen from him. And I genuinely mean that. That was one of the best outings of Casey Mis’s career from a stuff perspective. Um, maybe not from like a box score, but that was some of the best he has ever looked in a Tigers uniform. And that was in maybe the biggest start of his Tigers career. If he can replicate that again, I genuinely believe the Tigers can get out of Cleveland in two games and start preparing for Seattle. The whole bullpen is rested. Let’s go in a playoff series for the second year in a row. Hey, why not? Why not, baby? Oh, they won a game. Thank goodness. It’s like a huge sigh of relief. They they they won a game and it was a scoo game, right? They were favored that like that was, you know, Cleveland fans, I’m sure, will tell you that was always going to happen. If they’re going to win the series, they were going to have to win games two and three. I I understand that you still, this is far from over, but you have the upper hand. You lost the division. You choked that away to this team. You haven’t beat them in who knows how long. And now you have them against the ropes. End it. Thanks for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. Shout out to the Everydayers that do tune in every day. And we will of course be back tomorrow recapping said ball game. Game two. It’s a 1:00 first pitch yet again. I think it’s 10:08 p.m. Eastern. By has dominated the Tigers this year. Let’s play ball, baby. Peace and love. Going to therapy dope. I’ll catch you all then. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. We talk Tarik Skubal Tarik Skubal Tarik Skubal aTarik Skubal and Tarik Skubal!

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