CLEVELAND — When it comes to winning in the MLB postseason, circa 2025, you hear a lot about high-octane bullpens and home run hitters. But when you have a throwback ace like Tarik Skubal on your side, starting pitching and a little small-ball can still get it done.
Skubal lifted the Detroit Tigers to 1-0 lead in their AL wild-card series against the Cleveland Guardians with perhaps the most dominant outing of a career that’s been full of them, tying a 53-year-old Detroit postseason record with 14 strikeouts and pitching into the eighth inning of a terse 2-1 win.
Joe Coleman set the Tigers’ postseason strikeout mark in the 1972 ALCS against Oakland.
“It doesn’t really matter,” Skubal said. “Winning is what matters to me. It’s mattered to me all year. I think winning is the most important thing in sports.”
The outing became more dominant the deeper Skubal worked into the game. According to ESPN Research, Skubal topped 100 miles per hour with a pitch 11 times, six more than he’s ever had in a start. He topped 100 five times alone in the seventh when he struck out the side, the last whiff coming on a game-high 101.2 miles-per-hour laser to get Brayan Rocchio.
If it looked like Skubal was emptying his tank, it’s because he was: Based on his usage during the season, Skubal figured that would be his last frame. But Detroit manager A.J. Hinch wanted three more batters from the AL’s reigning Cy Young winner — and the favorite to win it again.
“I thought my outing was coming to a close,” Skubal said. “But I was ready to go back out there. Never going to take myself out of a game.”
Among the 28 batters Skubal faced, only three managed to get the ball out of the infield. None of those three came in the fourth inning when Cleveland managed to scratch out a run against the blazing lefty. That tally came on two infield hits sandwiched around a walk, the second of those safeties a chopper off the plate that scored hustling Angel Martinez all the way from second.
Cleveland starter Gavin Williams struck out eight over his six-plus innings, and both runs he allowed were unearned, two errors you can’t make against an ace like Skubal when he’s on. These tight games are part-and-parcel of the Tigers-Guardians rivalry.
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“What an unbelievably pitched game we got to watch,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Tarik Skubal was outstanding, punched out 14. Couldn’t get anything off of him. Gavin similarly.”
Game 1, played under a cloudless sky on an unusually warm early autumn day in downtown Cleveland, was something straight out of 1976. Both starters worked deep into the game. All three runs came via the small-ball route, and no ball left the yard.
The Tigers scored the go-ahead run in the seventh on a perfectly executed safety squeeze bunt by Zack McKinstry that plated Riley Green. Detroit — which laid down just five sacrifice bunts during the regular season — had two of them in Game 1.
“Anyone new to the Tigers-Guardians, this is what they look like,” Hinch said. “Like, every game. And obviously, Tarik set an incredible tone for us.”
It was indeed a throwback game dominated by a throwback starting pitcher in Skubal, who would look like an ace in any era of the big leagues.
“He’s a beast,” Hinch said. “And it’s why he’s considered by many as the best pitcher in the big leagues.”
The Guardians will try to keep their season alive in Wednesday’s Game 2, when Detroit’s Casey Mize will face Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee. The winner of the series will advance to the ALDS to face the Seattle Mariners.
Cleveland, which overcame a 15-1/2 game deficit to overcome Detroit in the AL Central race, has, in a sense, been playing elimination-type games for some time.
“Our backs have been against the wall for three months,” Vogt said. “What’s one more day?”