Can the Detroit Tigers catch up with the struggling Minnesota Twins?
Minnesota Star Tribune sportswriter Bobby Nightengale joins Days of Roar to discuss how the struggling Minnesota Twins are helping the Detroit Tigers.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Tarik Skubal roared, as he had so many times before.
This one, however, felt different.
With everything on the line, Skubal struck out Salvador Pérez on a down-and-in changeup, leaving two runners standing in the fifth inning on Wednesday and ending his 30th start. He screamed with joy and then slammed his left hand so hard on his glove that it fell off.
The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Wednesday night, thanks in part to Skubal’s decisive strikeout, to win the three-game series at Kauffman Stadium. Skubal will win the American League Cy Young Award and may even pitch the first game of an AL wild-card series in the postseason.
“Look at our season,” Skubal said. “We had a good start, and then we kind of fell through in the middle, and now you look at us. Trade deadline, we were sellers, and now you look at us. I think that speaks to the guys in this room. There’s no quitting. It doesn’t matter. So it’s a lot of fun, and I love what we do.”
MORE ABOUT HIM: How the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal developed into an Opening Day ace with Cy Young potential
The duel between Skubal and Pérez meant everything.
Skubal’s strikeout not only helped the Tigers move half a game behind the Minnesota Twins for the last wild card spot in the AL, but the strikeout also defeated a personal demon.
Consider that Skubal had allowed 15 runs in 15 innings in his last three starts against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. In addition, he entered his last outing with a 5.05 ERA in 14 career games against the Royals, both home and away.
“I think that’s probably more coincidence than anything I’m going to attribute to this stadium or whatever,” said Skubal, who leads the AL with 17 wins, a 2.48 ERA and 221 strikeouts. “My job is to put our team in a position to win every time I’m out there. That’s the way I look at it, no matter where I am, what stadium, who’s in the lineup, all of those things.”
A PERSONAL DEMON: Can Tigers ace Tarik Skubal overcome his difficulties against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium?
This time Skubal owned the Royals.
And what’s even better: Skubal finished his job against Pérez.
Skubal and Pérez — who respect each other as competitors and met at the All-Star Game in mid-July — have a deep on-field rivalry that spans 30 batting appearances. Pérez has 11 hits, a .367 batting average, with two doubles, four home runs and nine RBIs, but Skubal has 11 strikeouts without a walk.
“It was a big struggle for him,” manager AJ Hinch said Wednesday night. “Sometimes five (innings) is all it takes. He did his job by getting the biggest out against his biggest nemesis and showing a lot of emotion. … He’s our guy, and we need our guy to do his part, and tonight he did that.”
Skubal, the Tigers’ left-hander, allowed one run on three hits and one walk and had seven strikeouts in five innings. All three hits and the only run came in the first inning.
He threw 95 pitches.
“I just felt like they were late,” said catcher Jake Rogers, who called a whopping 53 four-seam fastballs – 55.8% of Skubal’s output – “and they couldn’t catch up, so I just kept calling it. … We stuck with the fastball, changeup, mostly. It worked. That was a feeling thing for me.”
THE GAME: Tigers beat Royals 4-2, putting them half a game behind the Twins
The last pitch was the most important pitch.
It was a full-count changeup with two runners on base and two outs in the fifth inning. Pérez’s swinging strikeout reminded the world of what Skubal already knew.
“For me, it’s all about making shots,” Skubal said. “If I can make shots at high speed, I have a good chance against anyone, no matter how many times they’ve seen me.”
Surely Skubal can beat any player and any team.
Maybe the Tigers can do that too.
“We live day by day,” Skubal said. “We have to keep winning and hopefully we can take control of our destiny in the end.”
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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