Tarik Skubal showed no lingering signs of injury in his first start since leaving his start last Saturday with discomfort in his rib cage. The reigning American League Cy Young award winner — and frontrunner for this year’s honors — allowed one run and seven hits over six innings versus the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday at Comerica Park.
Unfortunately for the Detroit Tigers, the lineup couldn’t provide Skubal much run support in a 3-1 loss to the Guardians. With the defeat, Detroit’s lead over Cleveland in the AL Central is now down to 3.5 games with nine games remaining on the regular-season schedule. The two teams play again in a three-game series next week at Progressive Field.
The Tigers were swept in three games by the Guardians in Detroit and have lost six of its past seven games overall. Detroit now faces a realistic possibility of losing its division lead and settling for making the postseason as a wild card after being one of the best teams in MLB for most of the season.
Skubal did his part as a staff ace to try and end the Tigers’ losing skid, striking out nine batters. That total gave him a career-high 233 strikeouts for the season, topping the 228 he compiled last year. Any concerns that he or the team may have had about taking it easy after the rib cage issue were likely settled with him throwing 102 pitches on Thursday.
His lone run allowed was a home run by Jhonkensy Noel in the fourth inning that tied the score at 1-1. Noel reached low and just outside the strike zone for a 91 mph change-up — Skubal’s best pitch — and launched a ball over the left-field fence.
The left-hander is scheduled to face the Guardians again next Tuesday. Skubal has an 0.40 ERA (allowing one earned run in 22 innings) this season versus Cleveland.
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