Tarik Skubal might have been born in California and grew up in Arizona, but Seattle holds a special place in his heart.
And when the Detroit Tigers’ ace takes the mound Sunday night in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League Division Series against the host Mariners, he will have about three dozen members of what he considers his extended family — the Seattle University baseball team — in attendance.
“I’m going to have the whole team out tomorrow, which I think will be a cool experience for them,” Skubal, 28, said Saturday before the Tigers won the series opener 3-2 in 11 innings. “I think they have a scrimmage in the morning. I’ve been talking to the coach. Get done with the scrimmage and come on over. I think that’s 34 guys on the roster, but I think it will be worth it for these guys to just come experience playoff baseball. And I understand that I was in their shoes however many years ago that was.”
Skubal credits his time at Seattle U. for turning him into the player he is today. The left-hander, who was selected by Detroit in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Seattle, is favored to win his second straight AL Cy Young Award after going 13-6 with a 2.21 ERA in the regular season.
Skubal defeated host Cleveland 2-1 in the opener of the AL wild-card round Tuesday, giving up one run on three hits and three walks over 7 2/ 3 innings with 14 strikeouts, tying not only his career high but also the franchise’s postseason record.
“He’s just an incredibly talented pitcher who puts in the work,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “So if you don’t watch us or you don’t know him, you look out at his presence, you see the (velocity), you see the stuff, you see the hardware, you’ve probably heard of him if you haven’t watched him.
“But I get the true opportunity to sit and watch him in between starts and how he’s put together not just a good start, not just a good stretch, but an expectation within himself to be elite,” the manager continued. “And that doesn’t come in one good season. That comes over time.”
Despite Skubal’s accomplishments this season, the Mariners beat him twice. He allowed three runs over 5 2/3 innings in a 3-2 loss on April 2 in Seattle and four runs in five innings of a 12-3 loss on July 11 in Detroit.
“It’s a different roster. At the (trade) deadline they made a lot of moves and did different things, so it will be a fun challenge,” said Skubal, who is 3-2 with a 3.77 ERA in 28 2/3 innings over five career starts against the Mariners. “The offense is good. The pitching is good. This is a good Seattle team.”
The Mariners will counter with veteran right-hander Luis Castillo (11-8, 3.54 in regular season), who beat Skubal head-to-head in both of those regular-season starts and is 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA over 41 innings in seven career appearances against the Tigers.
Castillo, 32, finished the season strong, going 3-0 over his last four starts while allowing three runs on 11 hits over 25 1/3 innings with two walks and 24 strikeouts.
The Mariners got big contributions from their stars on Saturday — Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez both went 3-for-5, with Rodriguez hitting a solo homer and driving in both runs — but the rest of the lineup was 0-for-28.
“A big blast from Julio, able to get some traffic in a couple of different innings, just not able to convert as much as we would have wanted to,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “But, you know, I thought we had some good at-bats. We did grind, (that’s) what we do. That’s how we run our offense, is grind out some at-bats, and just weren’t able to get enough back-to-back to kind of put the damage that we wanted to put up.”
Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run homer and Zach McKinstry brought home the deciding run with a broken-bat single with two outs in the 11th to score Spencer Torkelson, who drew a leadoff walk and took second on a wild pitch.
“To get a win before the best pitcher in the world pitches is pretty special, and I feel like Skubal is made for these moments, so he’s going to be at his best,” Carpenter said.
–Field Level Media
