The Detroit Tigers, who are closing in on their first American League Central title since 2014, are set to visit the Miami Marlins on Friday night for the start of a three-game series.
Both teams will pitch Cy Young Award winners on Friday: left-hander Tarik Skubal (13-4, 2.10 ERA) for Detroit and right-hander Sandy Alcantara (8-12, 5.67) for Miami.
Marlins first baseman Eric Wagaman, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in a 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Thursday, was asked by the FanDuel Sports Network about facing Skubal.
“We’ll go in knowing he has really good stuff, and he is doing what he’s doing for a reason,” Wagaman said. “We will go out there and compete, and we know that Sandy will have our backs on the bump.
“It should be a really good matchup. It should be fun.”
The Marlins are on a mini roll with back-to-back wins. During those games, Miami pitchers logged 22 strikeouts and no walks.
“Walks are something we struggled with early in the reason,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “We believe we have a lot of pitchers who have tremendous arm talent and high-quality stuff. But it’s no good if you don’t get the ball in the zone against major league hitters.”
Alcantara, who won the National League Cy Young Award in 2022, missed the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery and has struggled for much of 2025. However, he had his first sub-4.25-ERA month in August, going 2-2 with a 3.69 ERA. He gave up four runs in six innings during his first September start, a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.
The 30-year-old veteran has never faced the Tigers.
Detroit enters the series with a magic number of eight to clinch the AL Central title. Any combination of eight Tigers wins and/or Cleveland Guardians losses would give Detroit the division championship.
Skubal, 28, went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts during his breakthrough 2024 season, registering a pitching Triple Crown by topping the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.
He has been even better this season in terms of his ERA, again leading the AL, and he ranks second in the majors with 222 strikeouts.
In his most recent outing, Skubal threw seven shutout innings and fanned six as Detroit downed the Chicago White Sox 6-0 on Saturday.
“He had to battle tonight,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He didn’t have his best stuff early. I can’t remember the last time I saw him walk the leadoff batter. He had to go into battle mode.”
Skubal has faced the Marlins just once, in a no-decision on July 30, 2023. He gave up four runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings during a game Miami won 6-4.
The Tigers were 39-26 after the All-Star break in 2024 to make a surprise run into the playoffs. This year they were stellar in the first half, going 59-38, but they are just 25-25 since the break after a 9-3 loss to the host New York Yankees on Thursday.
Detroit had won the first two games of the series by a combined margin of 23-3 while piling up 27 hits. Catcher Dillon Dinger went 6-for-13 in the series, and he homered in the finale.
–Field Level Media
