Postseason Press Conference: Tarik Skubal on Wild Card Series Start vs. Guardians | 9/30/25

Postseason Press Conference: Tarik Skubal on Wild Card Series Start vs. Guardians | 9/30/25

Eric, what were your emotions like coming off in the seventh inning? Did you think you were done? And then what it mean to go back out there for the eighth inning? And yeah, I mean, I I thought it was kind of my outing was coming to a close, but um you know, I was ready to go back out there. You know, I’m never going to take myself out of a game and I don’t really ever want the handshake, but made an assumption, but it was fine. Was tough across the board. When did you have a feeling everything today? I don’t really know. um if I thought that at all honestly. Um I was just kind of worried about executing each pitch and and trying to do my best to live pitch by pitch and just do what makes me a good pitcher and that’s you know getting ahead and getting guys into leverage. T in light of in spite of everything you guys went through in recent weeks, you you had the ball in a game one rested ready. What did it mean to you to have that opportunity to kind of rewrite the narrative for your team? Yeah, it means a lot. It means a lot to take the ball game one. um to have the trust of our whole organization. Um teammates, coaches, you know, coaching staff, it means a lot. Um and it doesn’t really matter how we got here. You know, we got in, everybody’s in the same boat and we’re up one zero in a best of three. So, um it doesn’t really matter how you get here as long as you get in. T mentioned kind of going pitch by pitch, but the the slider usage in particular seemed to be pretty heavy. What do you feel? What’ you see from that pitch today and why were you able to lean on it so much? Um, is Dingler coming in here? Oh, okay. Yeah, I would ask him. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. I just He was calling it. Yeah, he calls it and I throw it. That’s kind of it. That’s kind of how all of it goes. There’s like two shakes a game and the rest are him calling it and I just try to throw it. Jason, um, you know, when they scored that run, they’re on on the bouncer, like what were your emotions as that happened and how were you able to, you know, collect yourself? Yeah, I mean, it’s not surprising, right? I mean, we’ve seen it. Um, I don’t think the ball hit the dirt again, you know, the infield dirt and they score a run. That’s just who they are over there. They’re really competitive. They take every 90 feet. Um, they run the bases really hard. They put a ton of pressure on you. Um, and that’s, you know, that’s how they scratch one across there. And it it’s it’s what they do. They’re really really good at it. And that’s that’s a credit to kind of who those guys are over there. You mentioned talking to Dingler about the sliders, but you know, you talked previously about pitch execution being really all that matters for you. How did you feel you executed in this one today? Um, I haven’t really watched it back um to to know. I I just know that I was bought in on every single throw that I made today. Um, and and that’s what I mean really matters is me trying to execute every pitch. I’m not perfect. I’m not going to be perfect. Um, I mean, I think the games best don’t really execute the pitch, but what like 20some percent of the time. So, it’s just about being bought in. That’s what I mean by that. It’s not about actually executing pitches. And I think I did a really good job of that. Everybody knows how game five ended last year, but now you get game one, you get a win here. What is just the satisfactory feeling of that doing that tonight? It’s just it’s a playoff game. I I mean it’s it’s good to have a series, you know, a series lead in any series. Obviously, game five doesn’t go um the way we would like it to, but also that inning was kind of chaotic, too. And it’s just one pitch that makes the difference. Um and it doesn’t it didn’t change anything that, you know, it didn’t change my routine or or my effort level or anything like that today. I just needed to focus on myself and what makes me a good pitcher. If you start letting all those things kind of creep into your head, I just don’t think you’re in a good spot mentally. So, I don’t really think about that stuff too much. Let the fans kind of chirp it if they want to. Going back to I don’t know if you’ve ever had a injury delay for a camera before, but between that and and the replay, was it was it hard to uh stay in rhythm at all in that? No, I kind of wanted him to do it again and just break it. If we broke the glass, do it again. And no camera there. Um, that’s what I told him. I’m like, “Dude, try and do it again.” You know, we’ll see what happens. No, I don’t. It doesn’t really matter. I’m hot when I’m out there. I’m ready to go. um that stuff that comes, you know, that can disrupt timing and stuff. If you let it get to you mentally, it will. So, just none of that stuff matters. It’s out of your control. Just play baseball. So, you talked about kind of re resetting after kind of everything that happened with the standings changes. Like, is there something you do when you’re not playing that you use to like kind of reset and like kind of just like decompress? Yeah, I think I think your breath is kind of probably the most important thing you can do. You know, just just breathe out there. I think a lot of moments that happen um that are out of your control or in your control, you know, just breathe, you know. I I do some breath work stuff and I think it applies to the game. Just keeps your brain in a good spot. What was it like watching Will secure those last three outs, especially with how the inning started? Down third, no outs. I mean, great job. Outstanding job. Um yeah, I mean he comes in for me in the eighth when I kind of run out of gas there and gets exactly what he’s supposed to do, get us out of the inning and then um I mean the first ball was kind of a a chaotic play, right? And they’re at third base with nobody out and um to just bunker, you know, settle in, you know, strike a guy out, make them make a mistake and then the game’s over. So it was it was huge. Um, and it’s obviously big that we’re up one zero and he’s a big reason why. You tied a Tigers postseason record from the 70s with 14 strikeouts. Obviously not a priority going into today. The win’s more important, but is that something that matters to you? Um, I don’t want to sound like I’m I understand, but it doesn’t. No, it doesn’t really matter. Winning is what matters to me. Um, it’s mattered to me all year. I think winning is the most important thing in in sports. It’s why you play is to win. Um, and however I can make an impact on a win, maybe that’s a different answer, but I just I care about winning more than anything. The breath you mentioned, when did you start doing that? Where did you learn that? I kind of started doing that once I got into the big leagues. Once you start playing in stadiums that are a little bit bigger than you’re used to, especially I’m from a smaller school. I maybe pitched in front of 500 people in college. So once you start getting into the big leagues and there’s 30 40,000, you got to do some things to calm down and just make sure that you’re focused on each and every pitch and and that’s that’s one of them for me. Jason, what was your view when Zach laid down that bunt and did you kind of find another gear when you’re pitching with the lead again? No, I don’t really I I don’t want to I’m not going to really change my approach a ton. Obviously, you want to pitch with the lead. Um but a one-run lead is not much. It’s It’s still close. one swing of the bat, the game is tied, you know. So, it it feels good to pitch with a lead, but it’s not going to dictate kind of what I throw or how I’m going to go about my business. But, it was a big time play. Um, perfectly executed. You know, almost gets a knock out of it, too. You know, make them feel the ball and throw it to first and um to put us up two to one. That’s all we needed today. One more. With Casey starting tomorrow, you’ve been with him, I mean, pretty much forever. What’s it like to see him get the opportunity to start tomorrow? And then what’s your level of confidence in him? I’m very excited. I’m very excited to see him go. Um, I’ve got the pleasure of being teammates with him since 2018. Um, came up together through the minor leagues, rehab together when we both got hurt in the big leagues. Um, I’ve seen all the work that he’s put in and I couldn’t be more excited for him to go out there and pitch and just go out there and compete. Um, this is a guy that was left off our roster last year in the postseason. So, um, to just kind of see all the work that he’s put in this offseason and how he’s came back and and obviously how he’s looked lately. you know, his last I don’t know how many starts, but they’ve looked really, really good. His outing in Boston, that’s as good as I’ve ever seen him in my life. So, that’s that’s awesome for him. I’m I’m very excited for him, and um he’s our guy tomorrow. Congratulations on your Thank you. Thanks,

Tarik Skubal recaps his start vs. the Guardians in game one of the Wild Card series.

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