Tigers ace Tarik Skubal shuts down Astros one fastball, one breath, and one howl at a time
HOUSTON — Let’s start with the nerves. Tarik Skubal felt them. Like he never had before. At least not since he made his major-league debut.
Which tells us what we should’ve known all along: The best pitcher in the American League is not a cyborg. He just throws like one. And did for six electric innings Tuesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, helping the Detroit Tigers win Game 1, 3-1, over the Houston Astros in the AL wild-card playoff series.
Of course, it’s easy to see why baseball fans compare the AL Cy Young Award favorite to a machine; lefties, after all, aren’t supposed to throw 100 mph in the sixth inning.
Then follow all that velocity with a changeup tailing away from the zone, tricking the batter to chase. But then Skubal did that, too.
In the fourth inning, to be precise, with a couple runners on and the heat turning up in the ballpark from a crowd used to postseason baseball and used to its teams finding a way to tag even the best pitchers in the game.
Victor Caratini was at the plate. He’d singled off Skubal in the third. Another hit and, well, we’re talking about the Tigers needing to win the next two games to advance to the ALDS.
“That pitch has been big for me,” Skubal said of the changeup. “It’s a credit to the pitching staff.”
Humility isn’t essential when a starting pitcher is on the mound, but it helps in the clubhouse, and in the pitching coach’s office, especially when that pitching coach — Chris Fetter — is among the most creative in baseball, so when he makes a suggested tweak, it’s good to listen.
It’s good to listen to the catcher, too. For the most part Skubal does. Except when he shook Jake Rogers off in the second inning, threw what he wanted — a changeup — and ended up with a comebacker off his glove hand off the bat of Yainer Diaz.
“I learned my lesson,” Skubal said.
He didn’t shake off Rogers again. Not that he’s in the habit. He and Rogers are synched up in the way the best pitchers synch up with their catchers. The catcher knows the pitcher’s stuff as well as anyone. And knows the hitters’ tendencies, as well.
“We kind of (know) he’s got 100 in the back pocket,” Rogers said, “which makes everything a little harder to hit.”
And yet major leaguers can tee off on any pitch if they get a bead that it’s coming. So Rogers wanted to set up Diaz for the change to get him to chase.
“Being able to command that inside (with heat) ... you know, no one likes to get hit, and we’re not trying to hit anybody, but to be able to throw inside these days is a huge, huge opportunity.”
Throw close. Make the batter hesitate. Throw away.
Add an ability to fight off hamstring cramps — as he did in the sixth; A.J. Hinch panicked as he walked to the mound to check on him.
“Like, what’s going on with this guy,” Hinch thought to himself when he left the dugout.
You want to talk about terror?
He wasn’t alone.
“I felt a lot better once I heard the word ‘cramp’,” he said.
Also add the competitive spirit of a linebacker, and a fastball that drops as much as it sizzles, and a curve that sweeps and a brain that’s aligned with a veteran catcher?
Well, you get a pitcher who can throw multiple shutout innings in the playoffs. On the road. Against the core of the team of the last decade.
“He’s a thinking man’s pitcher,” Hinch said.
But then that doesn’t explain the nuance that has propelled Skubal near the top of the sport.
Yes, Hinch said, “he’s got weapons. I mean he’s the complete package of a guy that you want to anchor a staff.”
And?
“As he’s gotten more popular and (had) more attention and more status, you know, within the game, he continues to work harder. I mean I looked for him before I came over here (to the press conference room) and he was doing arm exercises with our training staff.”
What Hinch enjoys almost as much as winning is seeing his guys get the love he thinks they deserve — to get seen, so to speak.
The screaming after a big out? Or a critical strikeout? Or after getting out of a jam? Hinch and his team see that all the time, and so do Tigers fans.
“I’m glad the baseball world gets to see that on the biggest stage of the year so far,” Hinch said, “because it’s authentic and it has a real impact on our club.”
So no, he’s not made up of metal. He feels pain like everyone else. He also feels joy. And turns out he feels nerves.
Then he took the field before the game. Started playing catch. Introductions upped the anxiety again. "The Star-Spangled Banner." Then the walk to the mound in the bottom of the first.
“Being nervous is good because it means you care about what’s going on,” he said. “Once I fired my first pitch, I think all that stuff goes away.”
It did. He sure didn’t.
Instead, he took a breath. Then another. And another. And executed his pitches, shutting down the Astros.
Some heat. Some changeups. Some fist-pumps. Some screams.
“That’s when I’m at my best,” he said.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.