DETROIT -- Tarik Skubal threw a 99.9 mph fastball past Wyatt Langford for a fourth-inning strikeout, one of his 32 whiffs -- the most by a Tigers pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) -- on Friday night. He turned his back to the plate, walked back towards the mound and pounded his glove, nodding his head to no one in particular. At first glance, it looked like an acknowledgement that he had something potentially special going.
“I think that’s just competition, probably feeling myself a little bit,” Skubal said after the Tigers’ 2-1 win over the Rangers at Comerica Park, their fifth straight victory.
In hindsight, maybe he should have been shaking his head "no-no."
“I mean, I knew after the first two innings,” Skubal continued. “When you go six up, six down, it’s like, ‘All right, this could be cool.’’’
Many pitchers will claim they don’t think about a perfect-game bid until the late innings. Some might not realize it at all. Skubal knew, well before he allowed his first baserunner after retiring the first 15 Rangers batters.
“Oh yeah, after one [inning],” Skubal laughed. “I thought I had a chance to do something special tonight. Obviously, those things are really special and you need a lot of things to go right. But I thought the stuff coming out of my hand was pretty good early. The shadows were in my favor, so I was trying to get through that as fast as possible.”
It wasn’t just the string of outs to begin the game but the sheer dominance behind them. Eight of Skubal's first 15 outs were by strikeout, starting with Sam Haggerty on a 99.7 mph fastball. Another heater at 98.7 mph fanned Marcus Semien in the second. Another at 99.6 mph froze Ezequiel Duran for a called third strike the following inning.
“They kept on swinging under it,” catcher Dillon Dingler said.
Skubal threw 10 pitches at 99-plus mph, including four for strikeouts. The Rangers connected on four, for a pair of groundouts, a foul popout and a foul ball. The 99.9 mph heater past Langford in the fourth came on a 3-2 pitch after Skubal had fallen behind, 3-0. Langford took a 97 mph fastball and a changeup for strikes, hoping to draw a walk, then finally fanned on the heat off the outside corner.
“He had a big fastball,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s got that great changeup, and he’ll go with the breaking ball. But the fastball was really good for him tonight. It had a lot of hop on it, and it was getting to them quick.”
Skubal wanted to start the game hot to give his teammates a boost of energy after a Thursday doubleheader sweep of the Rockies and a late-night flight home from Denver. He looked like he might give them a piece of history.
“We had a long road trip and guys got in late,” said Skubal, who flew home ahead of the team to prepare. “You could expect maybe a little bit of a low-energy game, but I didn’t want that to happen.”
The outs came so easily, so quickly, that Dingler didn’t realize what was happening until he heard the crowd react as Josh Smith’s ground ball bounced past shortstop Trey Sweeney’s effort and into left-center field for a single to lead off the sixth.
“When the fans started clapping, I looked up at the board,” Dingler said. “I knew he was doing well. When you’re in a rhythm like that, you’re just worried about the next guy.”
Smith scored on Haggerty’s blooper into shallow right. But Skubal regathered himself to retire his final five batters, three by strikeout, to end with seven innings of one-run ball on two hits, one hit-by-pitch and no walks with 12 strikeouts. He had one more three-ball count after Langford, fanning Semien on a 96.9 mph fastball to end a nine-pitch battle in the seventh.
Skubal’s 32 whiffs shattered Aníbal Sánchez’s Tigers-record mark of 28 whiffs, set during his 17-strikeout game against Atlanta on April 26, 2013. Prior to Skubal, no Major League pitcher had recorded as many whiffs in a game since Lance Lynn of the White Sox had 33 in a 16-strikeout performance against Seattle on June 18, 2023.
It’s not just the whiffs with Skubal but the command. Since losing his first two starts this season, Skubal has dominated in his past six starts, allowing four runs over 37 innings (0.98 ERA), with one walk and 50 strikeouts. He’s the seventh pitcher in at least 125 years with that kind of strikeout-to-walk ratio in a six-outing span in a single season.
Skubal has 33 strikeouts since his last walk to Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia on April 20.
He’s not perfect … yet. On nights like this, it looks not only possible but maybe inevitable.
“You need a lot of things to go right,” Skubal said. “Maybe one day.”