Tarik Skubal’s career-high 14 strikeouts help Tigers take down Guardians in Game 1 | Wild Card Recap

always count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and Paramount+. Major League Baseball season, postseason underway. And the first game between the Tigers and the Guardians. The Tigers in this one come out on top. It was an impressive performance by Tarik Skubal there. Take a look at that. He went seven and two thirds innings 107 pitches with 14 strikeouts. Just absolutely phenomenal showing by him and the Tigers for that matter. The Guardians managed to get on base there, tied up the game, but ultimately lost it. They did have a runner in scoring position in the ninth inning with no outs. We’re not able to capitalize on that game two tomorrow. First pitch is set for 108 eastern. If the Tigers win, they go on to face the Mariners in the Alds. Let’s welcome in our GM Jim Bowden here. Baseball Insider. All right. Game one. Impressive performance I got to start with Tarik Skubal though because that was absolutely insane what we just saw. Not just that the 14 strikeouts he went so far into this game. Talk to us about his performance and just how dominant he was. Yeah he had the best stuff he’s had all year. In fact, he threw 11 pitches over 100 miles an hour and all 11 pitches were the hardest pitches he’s thrown all year. So that tells you the kind of adrenaline and stuff that he had tonight. Look, we’ve talked about him all year. He won the Cy Young last year. He’s going to win the Cy Young Award this year. And this was the absolute blueprint of our expectations of this game. We thought we’d see a pitching duel. We thought Skubal would win the game because he’s been the best pitcher in the American League. And it played out exactly how we thought. Outside of how the Tigers were going to score their two runs to win the game. But for Skubal 14 Punchouts, as you mentioned, he only gave up three hits. He went seven and two thirds innings. And yes, a season high 107 pitches. But they won the game. They got a first inning base hit by Spencer Torkelson driving in a run, but then the game winning hit ended up being a safety squeeze by Zach McKinstry, which is kind of fascinating because the Tigers bunted the second least of any team in the American League in the regular season. And this is how the Guardians normally beat the Tigers by Bunting. And and here they reversed the fortunes here. And the Tigers Zach McKinstry gets it done for the win. On the other side for the Guardians, Amanda Gavin Williams was absolutely dominant as well in the innings that he pitched eight strikeouts and one walk. Gaddis came in, Kate Smith came in. They pitched as well. So the Guardians pitched good enough to win. But at the end of the day, they were facing the best pitcher in the American League and got beat. Talk to me a little bit more about the Guardians because I was reading comments online. And of course we have very angry fans after games, especially when your teams lose. But one said if you can’t score with a runner in scoring position with zero outs, you don’t deserve to win this game. Did you just not see enough from the bats? What was it on the Guardians side that ultimately ended up with the loss? Because you mentioned the pitching was so good? Yeah, I think Amanda, when Jose Ramirez ended up on third base with nobody out in the ninth inning and he reached base because Spencer Torkelson couldn’t scoop a one bounce throw by shortstop Javier Baez, who had made a great diving play to his left. Spencer couldn’t get his glove up in time in order to scoop it, and that allowed Ramirez to get to third. So with him on third and nobody out, you would think you’d be able to score a run. But I thought Will vest did a great job of pitching here. And then Ramirez, with one out, went on contact. He was at third base. That was the tying run. And as soon as the ball was hit, he took off for home plate. And obviously the pitcher best was able to feel the ball and then trap him between the two bases and finally tag him out. So look, I know it’s frustrating for the Guardians, but look, they won a lot of games, low scoring games in the last month. They’ve had the best pitching in Major League Baseball over the last month. And they don’t have to face Skubal in game two and they don’t have to face in game three. So as I said this morning, I said I thought the Tigers would win game one behind Skubal, but I thought the Guardians would win games two and three to get to the next round. We’ll have to see if I’m right or wrong. We’ll find out tomorrow. Okay. That’s interesting. I was looking at the odds. Right now the Tigers are -340. The Guardians are plus 270. Game two tomorrow. Give us a little preview of that. I’m not sure who’s on the mound. I don’t know if you have that information. What do you think we have coming up tomorrow? Of course I do. Tanner Bybee will be on the mound for the Guardians. And, you know, we talk about the aces of the Guardians. It’s really Gavin Williams. Is is is one a and Bybee is one B. So this is a dominant pitcher. They signed him to a long term contract to be the ace of the staff. So he’ll take the bump for Cleveland. On the other side Casey Mize will be on the mound for the Detroit Tigers. He’s going to pitch game two, according to manager A.J. Hinch. So there’s going to be an advantage in the starting pitching between Bybee and Mize. So favor the Guardians at least that way. And then in the bullpen, you know, the Guardians have had one of the best bullpens in baseball the last couple of years. And now, of course, trying to pitch without Emmanuel Closs, who is on administrative lee. But I think we’re in for another

Jim Bowden joins CBS Sports HQ to recap Game 1 of the Wild Card Series between the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Guardians.

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