Detroit – Rarely, almost never, does a pitcher embrace his manager in the dugout after he’s been pulled from a game. But the bear hug that Tarik Skubal threw on manager AJ Hinch after his night was over Sunday, well, you feared he might’ve bruised his skipper’s ribs.
“There’s a lot of love for that guy,” Hinch said. “Because of everything he does when everybody expects it. It’s one thing to do it like in a burst of a performance. But everybody in the league expects this guy to be perfect.”
Skubal wasn’t perfect, but he proved once again that he is built for prime time. The bigger the stage, the brighter the lights, the louder the crowd, the higher the stakes, the more dominant he becomes.
► BOX SCORE: Tigers 3, Twins 0
The Tigers were on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball for the first time since 2017, and Skubal completely stole the show, striking out a career-high tying 13 hitters in seven, one-hit, scoreless innings as the Tigers won the rubber match against the Twins, 3-0, at Comerica Park.
“I appreciate the expectations from the fanbase or from whoever is watching me play,” Skubal said. “But I just want to win. That’s all that matters to me. To get another series win and to win on the day I’m going. But I appreciate it, and I expect the same thing from myself.
“I don’t think I had these same expectations two or three years ago, and our team didn’t either. I want the fans to expect the best out of me because that’s what I expect, too. We want the same thing: They want to win, and I want to win just as bad.”
How’s this for capturing an audience in the first act: Skubal struck out eight of the first nine Twins hitters, including a run of seven straight.
“For a while there, I didn’t know what I was watching,” Hinch said. “He was punching out so many guys in a row. I didn’t know if it was ever going to end.”
He established his diabolical changeup early. Seven of the first eight strikeouts were on whiffs against the changeup. He ended up with 15 whiffs on 23 swings at the changeup (22 on 47 overall).
The first two pitches of the game, to red-hot Byron Buxton, were changeups. After two four-seamers, he came back to the changeup to strike him out.
“Buxton is one of the hottest hitters in the big leagues right now,” Skubal said. “He’s doing damage on everything. I didn’t really want to lay one in there on the first pitch of the game and see how far he can hit it. He’s been hitting it really far, I’ve seen it enough.
“But that was the point, right, to get him off the fastball and throw your best pitch.”
Skubal had a funny exchange with Buxton in the fourth inning. Buxton ambushed a first-pitch backdoor slider. The ball left his bat at 102.3 mph, the hardest-hit ball off Skubal the entire night, but it went right to Riley Greene in left.
“That was a well-executed backdoor slider,” Skubal said. “It might not be perfectly down and away, but it was on the away line, and that’s all I wanted to do with that pitch. He put a good swing on it, and I was like, ‘Bro, you’re supposed to take those. You’re supposed to let me get ahead 0-1 and then see if you can hit it.’
“He’s a great player, and when he’s hot like that, it feels like at any moment, a homer can happen.”
The lone Twins hit came with one out in the fifth, a sinking line drive to right-center by Ty France.
“He was outstanding, obviously,” Hinch said of Skubal. “Not only with the execution and pure dominance, but the ability to be creative and adjust to their aggressiveness, to stay in the moment, to give us seven strong, a series win against a division opponent, against an all right-handed lineup, in front of a great crowd, on a big stage – and he performed admirably.”
He ended his outing by freezing France with a 99.7 mph four-seamer – it was the only one of his 13 strikeouts that came on a called third strike.
He walked off to a thunderous ovation from the sellout crowd at Comerica (40,718), and he pounded his glove, applauding them back.
“There was some good energy, especially early,” Skubal said. “Like in the first inning. I don’t think I ever let out a scream after the first inning. That’s not usually my thing. I try to hold it in until I need it. But there was a different vibe in the ballpark for sure.”
It was Skubal’s 10th straight win, the longest streak in the big leagues. It was his fifth straight win in June. He joins fellow Cy Young winners Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer as the only Tigers pitchers to post a 5-0 or better mark in June.
It was his 10th straight win at Comerica Park, too. It’s the longest active home win streak in baseball and the longest by a Tiger since David Wells won 11 straight between July of 1994 and July of 1995 at old Tiger Stadium.
Skubal also became the first pitcher in Tigers’ history to punch out 13 in a game while allowing no more than one hit.
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“Tonight, there was a moment where you were thinking, this is getting deep in the game, and he wasn’t giving up any contact,” Hinch said. “There was a lot of emotion. Sunday night, national stage, big series win for us, and we continue to chip away at the calendar.”
And while Skubal was tormenting Twins hitters with his changeup, the Tigers were doing damage on changeups served by right-hander Chris Paddack.
Kerry Carpenter (No. 15) and Riley Greene (No. 19) both launched changeups into the right field seats. Both came on 3-2 pitches, Carpenter with two outs in the first and Greene leading off the fourth.
Carpenter also tripled in the third run with two outs in the fifth. But that was costly. His hamstring, for which he’s been taking daily treatment for more than a month, seemed to grab again as he rounded third.
He gingerly got to third base with a slide, but Hinch immediately removed him for pinch-runner Wenceel Perez.
“It definitely happened before the triple,” Carpenter said. “But it kind of got worse as I was turning it on (around second). It’s very similar to the last time, which is annoying. I felt it a little, but didn’t think it was significant.
“There’s no determination yet (about whether he will miss any time). We’ll get it checked out tomorrow. But it feels so similar, I hope it’s not going to be too bad.”
The Tigers (53-32) are on a 104-win pace. They are 30-14 at Comerica and have won 19 of 27 series with one tie.
@cmccosky
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