Is Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal window an ‘illusion’ with Scott Harris?
On “Days of Roar,” Evan Petzold and Scott Bentley discuss what Scott Harris said about the Detroit Tigers’ timeline to win with ace Tarik Skubal.
Before Detroit Tigers right-handed reliever Will Vest shut down the Houston Astros in the ninth and 10th innings, he watched in admiration as Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Astros right-hander Hunter Brown clashed in a battle of the aces.
In the showdown of 2025 AL All-Stars, Skubal completed seven scoreless innings on three hits, two walks and 10 strikeouts, and Brown completed six scoreless innings on five hits, three walks and six strikeouts.
“I made a joke in the bullpen,” Vest said. “Actually, not really a joke.”
The Tigers ended up winning, 1-0, on a walk-off walk from Gleyber Torres in the 10th inning Tuesday, Aug. 19, at Comerica Park, but the pitching duel between Skubal and Brown set the tone for the second of three games in the series.
The Skubal-Brown matchup took Vest back to a day he remembers, possibly in October 2020, from instructional league at the Tigers’ spring training complex in Lakeland, Florida, before he made his MLB debut.
Vest compared Skubal and Brown to MLB legends Pedro MartÃnez and Roger Clemens.
“We got done playing catch, and our pitching coordinator pulled all the pitchers into the conference room and pulled up a YouTube video of Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens facing each other,” Vest said after Tuesday’s game. “We just sat there and watched the game. He was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re going to get from this, but these are two of the best. Let’s watch.’ A few years from now, in the instructs, there are going to be guys doing this with Hunter Brown and Tarik Skubal. It was awesome.”
Both All-Stars are top candidates to become the next American League Cy Young winner after 25 starts in the 2025 season: Skubal, 28, has a 2.32 ERA with 200 strikeouts in 159â…“ innings; Brown, 26, has a 2.36 ERA with 170 strikeouts in 149 innings.
Skubal won the AL Cy Young in 2024.
“I don’t even think he was at his best, watching from my side,” Skubal said. “I’ve seen him much better, and I think that’s a compliment to who he is. To get six zeros without your best stuff, I think that’s what separates good pitchers to great pitchers, like he is. He competed really well.”
Vest enjoyed the matchup.
And then he joined the show with six outs in a row in the ninth and 10th innings, setting up the Tigers for a walk-off opportunity — which Torres capitalized on.
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“Two great pitchers,” Vest said. “Some of the best in the game right now, which is cool. It was a good pitching duel.”
After Tuesday’s 1-0 win, Vest reflected on everything that unfolded between the AL Central-leading Tigers and AL West-leading Astros in those 2 hours, 57 minutes in front of 30,770 fans at Comerica Park, following a 35-minute rain delay.
It might have been a postseason preview.
“I was just telling the strength coaches down there that it felt like a playoff game, kind of all the way through,” Vest said. “I was sitting there in between the innings, and I was looking in the stands and reminiscing on last year. I was like, ‘Wow, this feels like a playoff game again.’ Those games, we’re competitors. It brings the best out of you. You’re able to focus a little bit more. It’s good to feed off of that.”
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Bullpen roles for Alex Cobb, José Urquidy with roster decisions coming soon
Right-handers Alex Cobb and José Urquidy won’t build their pitch counts like traditional starters on their rehab assignments, both with Triple-A Toledo. They’re going to pitch shorter outings more often, emulating a bullpen role.
If activated, the Tigers will likely use Cobb and Urquidy as relievers.
The new plan: Cobb, 37, pitches two or three innings as he rehabs from injuries to both hips; Urquidy, 30, pitches two, three or four innings as he rehabs from his second Tommy John surgery.
“We’ve shrunk down the expectation internally on how long he can go in the game,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Wednesday, discussing Cobb. “We’re trying to see how these two- and three-inning stints go, and how he bounces back from that. We’ve told him that we need to see that as part of this rehab.”
The Tigers signed Cobb to a one-year, $15 million contract in free agency, but he has been injured since the first week of February — before spring training.
Cobb took down three scoreless innings out of the bullpen Tuesday with Triple-A Toledo, doing so on 36 pitches. He walked one batter, but he didn’t allow a hit while racking up four strikeouts while facing 10 batters.
In a few days, he will pitch again in the same role.
“It was better,” Hinch said. “We want to keep him stretched out in that 30, 40, 50-pitch outing, and we need to make sure he can get up and get into the game. He accomplished that. I think he was moving a little bit better.”
Pitchers are allowed to be on rehab assignment for a maximum of 30 days, which means Cobb must be activated by Aug. 28 and Urquidy must be activated by Sept. 2.
Roster decisions are coming soon.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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