The Detroit Tigers returned to Comerica Park on May 9 after a 10-game road trip that spanned three time zones: three games in Houston against the Astros (Central), four in Anaheim against the Angels (Pacific) and three in Denver against the Rockies (Mountain).
The trip was bookended by a home series in the Eastern Time Zone.
This marked the first time in franchise history the Tigers played four consecutive series in four different time zones.
The Tigers’ plane didn’t land until 2 a.m. May 9 — less than 17 hours before the opener of a three-game series against the Texas Rangers in Detroit — but left-hander Tarik Skubal flew home ahead of the team plane to prepare for his start.
“We had a long road trip and guys got in late,” said Skubal, whose fastball topped 99.5 mph twice in the first inning and maxed out at 100.1 mph in the seventh inning, after the 2-1 victory. “You could expect maybe a little bit of a low-energy game, but I didn’t want that to happen.”
That’s on-field leadership.
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He didn’t ease into his start. He came out like a flamethrower.
“That was by design,” Skubal said. “I think guys came out a little tired — not saying we did come out tired, but I just didn’t want that to happen with the late plane ride. I wanted to energize the guys with a quick first inning and get us in the dugout ready to hit.”
Skubal — the 2024 American League Cy Young winner — took a perfect game into the sixth inning before Josh Smith hit a two-strike fastball for a leadoff single, but Skubal still dominated: seven innings of one-run ball with zero walks and 12 strikeouts.
He generated 32 whiffs, the most by any Tigers pitcher since the start of the pitch-tracking era in 2008.
Six whiffs occurred in the first inning.
“There was probably a little bit extra effort in the first inning,” Skubal said.
The Tigers extended their winning streak to five games, improved their AL-best record to 26-13 and remained atop MLB with a plus-84 run differential.
Is there something special brewing?
“I don’t know,” Skubal said. “What month is it? Early May. There’s a lot of baseball to be played. I don’t want to get ahead of that. … What makes it special is we show up and try to win every game. … We need to focus on tomorrow.”
That’s off-field leadership.
He sounds like manager A.J. Hinch.
“The only way I know how to prepare is to get our guys focused,” Hinch said, reflecting on the Tigers’ AL-best record. “When you’re getting those answers from them, it’s my fault. All they’re going to talk about is the next series because that’s all they hear from me, but I’m very proud of our players and our organization.”
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Skubal is the best player on one of the best teams in baseball.
It would’ve been easy to play into the hype.
After all, the Tigers have a 99.9% chance to make the postseason, according to Baseball Reference. They also have a 90.7% chance to win the AL Central — something that hasn’t been done since 2014 — and an MLB-best 19.5% chance to win the World Series, which hasn’t happened in Detroit since 1984.
But Skubal isn’t thinking about October.
He’s focused on May 10.
“Our focus needs to be on getting better each and every day,” Skubal said. “I think we do that, and it shows. That’s something that A.J. has instilled in everybody. Whatever happened in the last four games doesn’t matter when we come to the yard tomorrow. I think our team truly believes that.”
Contact Evan Petzold at [email protected] or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal leads the way on and off the field
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