KANSAS CITY -- How could Tarik Skubal follow history? By beating his demons, or at least his house of horrors.
Skubal took the mound at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday afternoon coming off the most dominant performance of his career, a 94-pitch Maddux with 13 strikeouts and a 102.6 mph fastball at the end. But he came into a place where he had been hit around for much of his career, and facing a Royals team responsible for nine of his 33 career losses.
“You start looking at the past, the game will do some pretty cruel things to you,” Skubal said. “You have to just stay present and keep stacking good days.”
Pitching-wise, Saturday was a good day for Skubal, who held the Royals scoreless over more than four innings for the first time in 17 career meetings.
Results-wise, it was another frustrating day for him at Kauffman Stadium, because Michael Wacha continues to fluster the Tigers.
Both starters tossed seven scoreless innings with two baserunners allowed. Skubal struck out seven batters, Wacha six. Individually, they battled to a draw. Overall, the combined gems turned the fate of the game to the bullpen, making Vinnie Pasquantino’s eighth-inning RBI single off Beau Brieske the difference in a 1-0 Detroit defeat that ended the Tigers’ five-game winning streak.
It’s the ninth time in Skubal’s career that he has pitched seven or more scoreless innings. It’s the first time he has done so and the Tigers haven’t won. It shouldn’t take away from the roll that Skubal is on, even if it understandably feels like a missed opportunity.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t win,” Skubal said. “That’s more important than anything that I’m doing myself.”
Even so, what he’s doing deserves context.
Since losing his first two starts of the season, Skubal has posted a 1.66 ERA over his last 10 outings, with an 89-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio -- the best such ratio in MLB history over a 10-game stretch in a single season. The only other pitcher in MLB history to post 89 or more strikeouts with three walks or fewer over a 10-game span is Cliff Lee, who fanned 92 and walked three over a two-season stretch from Sept. 6, 2013 to April 21, 2014.
Skubal hasn’t allowed a run or a walk over his last two starts, a 16-inning stretch in which he has allowed four hits and struck out 20. He’s the first pitcher in franchise history to post back-to-back scoreless starts with no walks and 20 or more strikeouts, and the first MLB starter to do it since Zac Gallen fanned 23 no walks over 13 1/3 scoreless innings from April 21-26, 2023.
Last Sunday’s shutout was a relative runaway. Saturday was a classic pitching duel.
“Tarik was pretty dominant the way he always is with his fastball, changeup was good,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He's just an excellent pitcher. Wacha is an excellent pitcher, does it a little differently than Tarik. And the art of pitching, it was on display.”
Royals manager Matt Quatraro added: “You can appreciate the game, right? You got two really good pitchers out there, two good teams, and that’s a fun game. Sure, I would have rather been up 7-0 and not have to worry about it, but I did appreciate what was going on. It doesn’t make it any easier.”
Skubal, too, was a little different than his last outing. There were no triple-digit fastballs Saturday; his fastest pitch was 98.8 mph. He had 14 whiffs, barely half his total of 26 from last start, but more called strikes (17) than last Sunday (13). And instead of mixing four-seam fastballs and changeups to keep hitters off-balance, Skubal succeeded against a lineup of eight right-handed hitters with sinkers, 40 of them over his 90-pitch outing, producing seven whiffs and eight called strikes. He threw more sinkers than changeups and four-seamers combined (38).
“I think that’s how I’m going to neutralize a lot of righties in general,” Skubal said. “It’s just about executing pitches and standing them back so they can’t leak out and cover stuff away. I’m used to facing a ton of righties. I was executing [sinkers] at a high clip.”
Both hits were singles off full-counts -- Freddy Fermin lining a fastball into right-center with one out in the third, Nick Loftin sending a sinker into left-center with one out in the fifth. Just four other balls in play off Skubal reached the outfield.
“Honestly,” Loftin said, “it was a relief to get him out of the game.”