With a 'closer mentality,' Skubal hoping to bring the heat in All-Star Game

ATLANTA -- How do you top a pitching Triple Crown season and a unanimous vote for the American League Cy Young Award?

An All-Star Game start would be one way for Tarik Skubal. But he has already found a way to one-up himself with a finishing kick.

The lasting image from Skubal’s season to date is the 102.6-mph fastball he threw to fan Cleveland’s Gabriel Arias on his 94th and final pitch in his two-hit, 13-strikeout shutout on May 25 at Comerica Park. It was an epic pitch -- and Skubal matched the moment by standing on the mound and soaking in the scene.

Like a marathoner, he saw the finish line and decided to sprint over it.

“I’m an emotional player. I feed off of energy in the stadiums,” Skubal said afterward. “When everyone’s on their feet, special things kinda happen when you’re in my shoes.”

Skubal anticipates that he’ll be bringing that fiery edge into Tuesday night, when he takes the mound at Truist Park.

“I plan to have a ton of fun,” Skubal said on Monday during All-Star media day. “I'm going to go out and compete. Any time you get to toe the rubber and the guys in the other box are the game's best, it's going to bring out the best in you. I'm excited for the opportunity.”

What has happened since that epic shutout nearly two months ago has been a two-pronged suspense caper: How long can Skubal hold an opposing team hitless? And how hard can he throw when he gets to the end?

According to Statcast, Skubal has thrown 17 pitches at 100.0 mph or faster this season. Four of them have come in his final inning of an outing. Three of them have gone to his final batter. Like former Tigers All-Star Justin Verlander, he had velocity late. Like Max Scherzer, another Detroit All-Star starter, Skubal has been making many of his last pitches his best.

“I want to put a lot of emphasis on finishing my outings. That’s really it,” he said recently. “I don’t want to be working out [after an outing] and feel like I had another pitch in me. …

“I feel like I’ve always been able to kind of empty the tank at the end of my starts. But now it might just be a little more noticeable. … Every pitch I throw is with good effort, but when you know you don’t have to worry about the next inning, it’s kind of almost like a closer mentality. You’re closing your outing.”

All this late velocity begs the question: How hard can Skubal throw if he enters a game knowing he has only an inning -- or two, tops? Like, say, an All-Star Game?

“Well, last year I thought I’d have some juice with me, but I didn’t have much,” Skubal shrugged.

In fairness, Skubal needed just 10 pitches to retire the side in order in the second inning of last year’s game. He was barely getting warm when his outing was done. His fastest pitch that night was 96.3 mph, 1.3 below his average fastball velocity for last season. But even Skubal, a results-oriented pitcher, had a twinge of disappointment in his voice when recalling it.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Skubal said, almost apologetically. “I didn’t have adrenaline going. I just don’t know why. So yeah, it was a weird outing for me, but I was trying. Just [that] was what I had that day. I thought my fastball would tick up and be 99.”

There’s some history with Tigers pitching Triple Crown winners, All-Star Games and triple-digit fastballs. Verlander got the start for the 2012 Midsummer Classic in Kansas City and -- with pitch-by-pitch encouragement from Detroit teammate and AL first baseman Prince Fielder -- threw a half-dozen pitches at 100+ mph, topping out at 101 on the pre-Statcast readings. He also gave up five runs on four hits in a 35-pitch inning.

By that point in his career, Verlander had adapted his style to build up his velocity as a game goes on and save the top heat for later. But he wanted to put on a show.

“This is primarily for the fans, I feel like,” Verlander said at the time. “I’m not going to go out there and throw 90 and hit my spots. Nobody wants to see that -- not from me, anyway.”

Don’t expect Skubal to go into that mode, though fellow All-Star Tigers Riley Greene, Javier Báez, Gleyber Torres and Zach McKinstry could encourage the heater. The Tigers set things up to give Skubal his best opportunity at another shot, moving up his final start before the All-Star Game from Saturday to Friday. That allows him to pitch the All-Star Game on three days’ rest, rather than two, and treat it more like a regular appearance and less like a between-starts bullpen session.

Does that mean a better chance at 100? Could he approach 102? Should AL starting catcher Cal Raleigh just lock down the fastball button?

“I thought last year would probably be the highest it would get,” Skubal said. “Your first one is the most nerves, the most adrenaline you would get. Yeah, I don’t know.”