00:00There's a quiet kind of mastery in pitching, the kind that doesn't always light up the
00:04radar gun or fill a box score with strikeouts, it's an art that turns a hitter's best intentions
00:09into harmless lazy fly balls or the most ordinary ground outs you'll ever see.
00:14On Wednesday at Truist Park, Tarek Skubal painted that very picture against the team
00:19with baseball's best record, the Atlanta Braves, and in doing so, he crafted his latest masterpiece.
00:24I would love to go out there and strike every single guy out, but I think I'd probably find
00:31myself being done pitching after about three or four innings just with pitch counts and stuff,
00:36Skubal said on Tuesday. That's part of being a starter, you have to pitch deeper in the games,
00:41and now you need to get swing and miss when you need to in certain situations, but for the most
00:45part, a nice routine ground ball for me on a first or second pitch is just as good as a
00:50strikeout.
00:50By his own definition, Skubal delivered everything you could ask for in the Tigers' 4-3 loss.
00:56The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner worked seven innings, surrendered just five hits,
01:02four of them singles, and racked up seven strikeouts on 91 pitches. He leaned on his
01:07four-seam fastball throughout the night while mixing in a change-up, a sinker, and a slider.
01:12Detroit's defense turned that approach into an asset, rolling two double plays and getting nine
01:17batters on ground outs. Both double plays were started by Colt Keith, who also made a slick play
01:23on an Aussie Albies grounder in the third inning. We played really good defense, which is what you
01:28want to do behind Tarek, and if they are going to make contact, which this is a high-contact team,
01:33you got to make the plays we did, and he put us in a position to win. Manager AJ Hinch
01:38said,
01:39Skubal opened the game by striking out Ronald Acuna Jr. on a foul tip.
01:43But, after a single from Drake Baldwin, Albies jumped all over a 95.7 MEP PAH fastball that
01:51Skubal left just up in the zone. Albies drove it a stat-cast projected 400 feet to left field for
01:57a
01:57two-run homer, giving the Braves a 2-0 lead in the first. They ambushed him with the homer,
02:03Albies swung the bat very well right-handed, and Skubal stayed in there and was able to get better.
02:10As the game went on, it looked like his stuff got a little bit better. His execution got a little
02:16bit better, Hinch said. Detroit responded in the second, when Seal Perez opened the inning with a
02:22double and Jace Jung walked with two outs. Kevin McGonagall lined a single dissenter to score Perez,
02:28and Jung later came home on a throwing error by J.R. Ritchie during a pick-off attempt,
02:33tying the game. In the third, Riley Green delivered the go-ahead swing.
02:37He got out in front of an 87.9 MEP PAH changeup and drove it 417 feet to straightaway centerfield,
02:45the ball leaving his bat at 106.22 MEP PAH to put Detroit ahead 3-2. Skubal struck out Acuna
02:51in all
02:51three of their matchups, including punch-outs in the third and sixth innings, and he kept working
02:56efficiently through the heart of Atlanta's order. A brief moment of concern surfaced in the seventh.
03:02Facing Matt Olsen, Skubal appeared to shake out his arm after throwing a 96 MPA sinker for a strike,
03:07he motioned for catcher Dylan Dingler to come to the mound and briefly handed him his glove.
03:12I don't really know how to explain it, I just needed a little bit of time,
03:15that's why I kinda called Ding out, and then the symptoms that I experienced on the one throw
03:20went away. And, obviously, it felt pretty good after that, Skubal said.
03:25I ran out there to make sure that everything was okay. It hasn't been a great last 24 hours for
03:30us
03:30medically, Hinch said, with Javier Baez and Casey Mies having been placed on the injured list earlier
03:36in the day. He had a funny feeling on the outside of his arm, then he wanted to throw a
03:40pitch,
03:41and then he punched out the side, so he felt good about the way he ended but certainly not fun
03:46walking
03:46out to the mound. Skubal stayed in the game and finished his outing by striking out the side on a
03:5197 MPH fastball, a 96.9 MPH fastball, and an 81.1 MPH curveball, his only curveball of the night.
04:00Defense picked me up, I gave up too, and our offense came right back too, but obviously it
04:05came up a little short in the end. Skubal said, it's the game of baseball, there's ebbs and flows,
04:11first time through, I got hit around today, you got to make adjustments, I think Ding called a
04:16great game, and we kind of audible there and got him off the heater, and then we were able to
04:20re-establish the heater there in the 7th inning, and got a ton of misses, I would rather trust my
04:24track record than 7 starts. Tigers fans, when you watch a start like this one, filled with quick
04:30grounders, just enough swing and miss, and the guts to pitch through a 7th inning scare, does that feel
04:36as dominant to you as a 12 strikeout performance, or do you still find yourself craving the punchouts?
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