Baltimore – Some nights he comes blazing out of the gates. Other nights, like Thursday, he’s more like an old-time locomotive – a little slow out of the station but gradually picking up steam and power with every chug of his gifted left arm.
Tarik Skubal blanked the Orioles on three hits for seven innings, helping the Tigers take the three-game series at Camden Yards with a 4-1 win.
“He’s one of the best in the league,” manager AJ Hinch said. “He will counter whatever they’re doing and he stays in the fight. It will be punch-outs on some days and other days it’s having to mix his pitches and throw in a few breaking balls, which is what he did tonight.
“It was good to see.”
If the Orioles were ever going to get Skubal Thursday, it had to happen in the first two innings. And it didn’t.
Jordan Westburg led off the bottom of the first and drove a 97-mph four-seamer to the wall in right where Kerry Carpenter caught it with a leap. Skubal gave up a walk and a single in the second. The walk was his first in 26.1 innings dating to his start in St. Louis on May 20.
But he ended the threat in the second with a three-pitch punch-out of Colton Cowser and it was full steam ahead from there.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 4, Orioles 1
“Early I didn’t think the stuff was coming out of my hand and I was kind of fighting myself,” said Skubal, who improved to 7-2 and lowered his ERA under 2 (1.99). “As the game wore on, I felt like I got better and that’s what I’m most proud of.
“You look back at an outing and sometimes you are on from pitch one and sometimes it takes a little bit.”
His fastball velocity was sitting at 95-96 mph in the first two innings, but Skubal was ringing 97, 98 and 99 the rest of the way.
Mostly though, he was attacking with a heavy dose of power sinkers (he threw 34 of them) which resulted in 12 ground ball outs through six innings. The Orioles, besides the three singles, hit just two balls to the outfield.
“I commanded that pitch well,” Skubal said. “Ding (catcher Dillon Dingler) does a good job of feeling the game, feeling the hitters and getting us where we need to go. Obviously, they had three lefties and that’s a high-percentage pitch to lefties. They gave me three lefties and that may have dictated the usage a little bit.”
The other part was that he didn’t have his usual pinpoint command with his four-seamer.
“You kind of go with what’s working and my four-seam command wasn’t great,” he said. “I was cutting it down when I tried to go down and I was pushing it away when I was trying to go up. I was fighting myself on that pitch.”
Skubal struck out six and allowed only two base runners after the second inning. One was a leadoff walk to Ramon Laureano in the seventh. It was the first he’s walked a leadoff hitter all season.
“Yeah, he did walk a couple of guys today,” Hinch said with a wry smile. “We’re going to have to work on a couple of things.”
Funny thing about the two walks, he only threw 24 balls in 98 pitches.
“Oh, that’s pretty good,” Skubal said, smiling.
It was his sixth scoreless outing of the season, tied with Tampa’s Drew Rasmussen for the most in baseball, and his fourth start with at least seven scoreless innings. He was asked if he thought this was the best stretch of his career.
“I always go back to the end of last season and into the postseason,” he said. “That’s the best I’ve thrown the baseball and I will always chase that. But I’m going to keep trying to elevate my game. I’m in a good stretch but it doesn’t change how I’m going to go about my business. I’m going to keep stacking good days and continue to try to get better every day.”
The Tigers’ offense was contained to one inning.
With one out in the fourth, Dingler ambushed a first-pitch, center-cut cutter from right-hander Dean Kremer and sent it into the bullpen in left-center. His seventh homer.
Centerfielder Cowser, tracking the ball, ran full speed into the wall as if he didn’t know it was there. He crashed hard and was shaken up. But he stayed in the game.
Zach McKinstry and Javier Báez (two hits) followed with singles, getting it to Parker Meadows who was hitless in his last 12 at-bats. And he fell into a fast 0-2 hole.
Kremer missed with a splitter low and tried to beat Meadows with an elevated 94-mph four-seamer. The pitch was above the zone but Meadows got his barrel to it and destroyed it – 105.5 mph off his bat.
The three-run homer, his first of the season, flew majestically into the right-field seats.
“He got a fastball and he didn’t miss it,” Hinch said. “Loud sound, big homer, the only inning we could put anything together, and it helped us win the game. Going home, Parker’s going to feel really good about taking some things he’s been working on into the game and having something to show for it.”
The Orioles got on the board in the eighth against reliever Tommy Kahnle, who tried to sneak a rare fastball by Dylan Carlson. Nope. Carlson, who had three hits, blasted it 406 feet into the seats in right-center.
Will Vest, who won an 11-pitch fight with Laureano and then struck out Ryan O’Hearn and Jackson Holliday to close it out, earned his 12th save.
Speaking of trains picking up steam: The Tigers have 45 wins in their first 70 games for the seventh time in their history and just the second time since 1985. They’ve won 16 of 22 series this season (16-5-1) and eight of 12 (8-3-1) on the road.
Rolling, rolling, rolling.
@cmccosky
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.