Should Detroit Tigers let Tarik Skubal pitch deeper into games?
The Days of Roar podcast breaks down the caution around Tarik Skubal’s pitch count, plus thoughts from Justin Verlander on pitching deep into games.
- The Detroit Tigers defeated the Chicago Cubs 3-1, improving their record to 42-23.
- Tarik Skubal pitched into the eighth inning and the Tigers’ defense made several highlight-reel plays.
- Spencer Torkelson hit a go-ahead home run and Jahmai Jones added an insurance home run.
It was a special night at Comerica Park.
More than 40,000 fans packed the ballpark. The National League-leading Chicago Cubs were in town. The best pitcher in the world took the mound and dominated once again, backed by stellar defense at every turn. A slugger crushed a clutch home run, and a freshly promoted player added insurance on the first pitch he saw.
In the end, MLB’s best team delivered one of its biggest wins of the season.
The Detroit Tigers won, 3-1.
But the Tigers didn’t need to rise to the occasion.
They’re already there.
“I don’t know how much we have to rise,” said manager A.J. Hinch, whose Tigers improved to 42-23 this season — and 73-36 in 109 games since Aug. 11, 2024. “I appreciate the thought of raising the bar, but the bar is pretty high around here. I really appreciate our players bringing it every day.”
Everything started with left-hander Tarik Skubal, the reigning American League Cy Young winner who pitched into the eighth inning, but it was the Tigers’ flawless defense that set the tone for their ace on Friday, June 6, in the opener of a three-game series against the Cubs.
There were so many highlight-reel plays.
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The Tigers put on a clinic.
“You come to expect it out of this team,” Skubal said. “We play hard, and that’s what happens when you play hard.”
Shortstop Javier Báez made a strong throw to beat Carson Kelly in the second inning, then slid to rob Kyle Tucker of a hit in the fourth and caught Pete Crow-Armstrong trying to return to third base in the fifth. Left fielder Riley Greene made a leaping catch to deny Crow-Armstrong in the second. Third baseman Zach McKinstry dazzled with a backhanded play into foul territory to nail Nico Hoerner in the third. Catcher Dillon Dingler threw out Matt Shaw stealing second in the eighth inning.
And then there was right fielder Kerry Carpenter’s catch in the eighth inning.
“Big moment in the game,” Skubal said.
The Tigers had a 2-1 lead, but the Cubs had runners on the corners with two outs in the eighth. After back-to-back hits, the Tigers replaced Skubal with right-handed reliever Will Vest for a matchup with Seiya Suzuki.
Why did Hinch pull Skubal this time?
Because Suzuki entered Friday’s game hitting .339 with a 1.173 OPS against left-handed pitchers — compared to just .247 with a .785 OPS against righties.
“We got to get a righty on him at that moment,” Hinch said.
Suzuki hit a high fly ball to right field.
It looked like a routine out.
But the ball kept carrying.
“I was like, ‘Stay here, stay in the ballpark,'” Hinch said. “When he hit it, you feel really good, and then watching Carp go back and back and back, and then I still thought he had it, and then the jump is when I really started to feel a little nervous because you don’t know how far it’s going.”
Carpenter reached the warning track, leapt as far as he could, extended his glove and stopped the ball from hitting the top of the wall.
His catch ended the top of the eighth.
Carpenter held up his glove to show he made the catch. Vest shouted in celebration as he strode confidently off the mound. And in the dugout, Skubal flexed his arms, bent over and unleashed his biggest roar of the night.
The Tigers’ ace was fired up.
“We play every game with a fire, and we want to win every game,” Skubal said. “When the competition is who they are, and the record is what it is — this weekend was going to be fun regardless, just with the fans, but you bring a good team into town — you want to win a series and put a good product out for fans to keep coming back. It’s going to be a ton of fun the next two days.”
The dominance from Skubal and the catch from Carpenter stole the show in Friday’s series opener, but the Tigers wouldn’t have won the game if not for Spencer Torkelson blasting a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning.
Then Jahmai Jones added insurance with a pinch-hit homer off a left-handed reliever in the eighth — on the first pitch he saw after arriving from Triple-A Toledo.
The swing from Jones is the latest example of why the Tigers own the best record in baseball. On any given night, any player can contribute to a win, even one who wasn’t on the roster that morning.
The Tigers don’t just count on a few big names.
They get help from everyone.
“The biggest thing is, it’s just everyone together,” Jones said. “It really is an all-in mentality with every single person in here. Everybody is bought into whatever their role is, and everybody has the same goal, which is ultimately to win a World Series.”
Before Friday’s game, the Tigers called up Jones to fill Andy Ibáñez’s role against left-handed pitchers. The role often includes pinch-hitting for Carpenter late in games.
That’s exactly what happened in the eighth.
Injured Matt Vierling shared tips on how Jones should prepare for a potential opportunity, and by the fourth inning, he had settled into his pinch-hit routine — and in the eighth, he delivered when it mattered most.
“I’m proud of him. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for our team,” Hinch said of Jones, who has played 70 MLB games with five teams in parts of five seasons. “He’s grinded a lot throughout his career, and he comes up here and immediately contributes.”
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If there was ever a World Series preview in early June, this may have been it — the AL’s best versus the NL’s finest, Skubal staring down Cubs star Kyle Tucker and A.J. Hinch squaring off against Craig Counsell in a managerial chess match, all in front of a sellout crowd.
The Tigers came out on top in Game 1.
And it wasn’t a surprise.
“We’re a good team,” Hinch said.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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