Sensational Skubal a no-brainer to make second All-Star team

CLEVELAND – The Tigers will have at least four All-Stars for the first time since 2015. Their latest was the least surprising of all.

The way Tarik Skubal has not only followed up but improved upon his Cy Young Award-winning season from last year, his second consecutive American League All-Star selection seemed inevitable. His only sweat leading up to Sunday’s All-Star selection announcement came from his seven scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts on a hot afternoon at Progressive Field.

That doesn’t mean he takes it for granted.

“It means a lot,” Skubal said. “To be able to share it with more teammates is also pretty special.”

Skubal’s scoreless performance Sunday didn’t earn him a win, but it dropped his ERA to 2.02, second-lowest among qualified AL starters behind Astros right-hander and Detroit area native Hunter Brown’s 1.82. It’s also the lowest by a Tiger through his first 18 starts in a season since Mark Fidrych’s magical 1976 campaign (1.99).

Skubal’s 0.81 WHIP leads Major League pitchers, while his 148 strikeouts are three behind Boston’s Garrett Crochet for the MLB lead. Sunday marked his third start this season with seven or more scoreless innings, no walks and double-digit strikeouts, joining him with Clayton Kershaw (2015), Randy Johnson (2004) and Sandy Koufax (1965) as the only left-handers in Major League history with three in a single season.

Skubal led all AL starting pitchers in player balloting with 365 votes, 17 ahead of Crochet.

With Skubal’s dominance this season, the only All-Star suspense has been whether he starts the Midsummer Classic. That decision will be up to AL All-Star manager Aaron Boone. Last year, AL All-Star manager Bruce Bochy selected then-Oriole Corbin Burnes over Skubal for the start.

Barring a rainout or a change in rotation plans, Skubal will be available to pitch. He’s on turn to make his final start before the break next Saturday against the Mariners at Comerica Park. The All-Star Game is three days later, when Skubal would normally throw his between-starts bullpen session. But with Brown, Crochet, Max Fried, Jacob deGrom, Yusei Kikuchi, Shane Smith, Kris Bubic and Bryan Woo also on the All-Star staff, Boone will have no shortage of choices.

“It would be an honor to start,” Skubal said. “I’m not going to say I don’t care to start. But I didn’t start last year. It would be an honor to start the All-Star Game. It’s something that I want to do at least one time in my career. But I don’t make those decisions. It’s not going to offend me or anything like that.”

Skubal joins teammates Riley Greene, Javier Báez and Gleyber Torres on the AL All-Star roster, giving the Tigers their largest All-Star presence in a decade. They could potentially get more as last-minute additions as players bow out to injury, or as pitchers who start next Sunday for their teams are replaced.

Skubal certainly hopes so.

“To be honest, I’m a little disappointed with only the four guys we got. I think there’s a lot more deserving guys on our team,” Skubal said. “We’ve got the best record in the American League. I would like to think that we would be represented more there. What [Zach McKinstry] has been able to do, what Tork’s been able, what [Dillon] Dingler’s been able to do, [Will] Vest, [Tommy] Kahnle, Casey [Mize], as much as I enjoy that I’m going, I’m pretty disappointed with only the four of us going. I think that there’s more deserving people in this room for us.”