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CLEVELAND — Tarik Skubal is from Hayward, Calif., and grew up in Kingman, Ariz. The population in Kingman is 35,383. Skubal played high-school baseball in a division so small Kingman Academy faced its own JV team for the state championship two different times. Skubal went on to attend Seattle University, his lone Division I offer and a school that did not have its own baseball field.
“I maybe pitched in front of 500 people in college,” he said.
Even in the major leagues, Skubal debuted in an empty and eerie stadium on the south side of Chicago during the 2020 COVID season.
Tuesday, though, Skubal found himself in what is becoming a familiar setting. In the center of a maelstrom. All eyes on him. The best pitcher in the American League trying to will his team a little bit further.
It is in these settings Skubal has adopted breathing exercises to help keep himself calm. He does them before games. He does them before crucial moments.
In and out.
Deep breath.
Exhale.
“Your breath is probably the most important thing you can do,” Skubal said. “I think it applies to the game. Just keeps your brain in a good spot.”
That’s what Skubal was doing during an ersatz fourth inning, when the Guardians were once again doing Guards Ball things, when a foul ball shattered a TV camera and caused a delay, when Gabriel Arias hit a nonsense chopper that bounced high over Skubal’s head and left him chasing it over the back of the mound. Skubal eventually corralled the ball but dropped it. He finally threw late to home plate. The Guardians scored to tie the game.
Everything that happened in that fourth inning was all too reminiscent of what transpired last week in Cleveland, when the Guardians wrecked Skubal’s night and sent the Tigers’ season hanging off the edge of a cliff, all without hitting a ball out of the infield.
“I was kind of at a loss for words,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, “because they just scratch and claw and come at you.”
But Tuesday, Skubal escaped that inning. And rather than implode like the Tigers did so many times during their 7-17 September, they leaned further on their ace, shut down the Guardians and earned a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series.
In the fourth inning, Skubal helped to end the Guards Ball threat. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
“It didn’t feel like the past few weeks,” catcher Dillon Dingler said. “Everybody was up. Everybody wants to put runs across because we know we have Skub up there.”
So much of Skubal’s performance Tuesday reflected a pitcher who lives for these games, who relishes all this adrenaline, who pitched into the eighth inning, struck out 14 batters — the most in the playoffs since Gerrit Cole struck out 14 in 2019 — and carried his team to a white-knuckled victory in a short series where anything can happen. Skubal was built for these moments, programmed himself to handle the pressure. He became only the 14th pitcher ever to strike out 14 or more batters in a postseason game.
“The way Tarik Skubal threw the ball tonight, I don’t know if anybody scores off of him,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “He was absolutely outstanding. Took a little bit of Guard Ball turmoil there just to get one. … But he was some kind of special today.”
Skubal at his best is a dazzling competitor to watch. He’s the guy who exclaims after strikeouts and backpedals off the mound after statement innings. He will jaw with umpires and, last year in this building, motioned toward fans to keep the taunts coming as the boos rained down.
Monday during a Tigers workout, Hinch joked Skubal is so competitive he will be the type of father who beats his kids in board games. “That’s sort of what he’s about,” Hinch said.
Skubal could not deny the charge. “I don’t think my dad let me beat him in anything, and my older brothers damn sure didn’t,” Skubal said. “So, yeah, I agree with him. I don’t know if that means I’m a bad dad or not, but whatever.”
Despite that edge, there’s also a side of Skubal that is carefree and easygoing. Baseball’s culture practically calls for starting pitchers to enter the building with caution signs around them on start days — hoods on, headphones turned up, monoliths of focus.
Skubal was like that once, back when he was a young pitcher trying to find his way.
“I took everything way too seriously,” Skubal said, “and I was the headphones-on guy and didn’t talk to anyone on my start day because I thought that’s what you were supposed to do.”
But he learned that the self-induced pressure only caused him to crumble. He wasn’t exactly enjoying the game. The reflections that stemmed from flexor tendon surgery in 2022 slapped him back into perspective. Got him to drop the bravado.
“It kind of takes big life moments, surgeries, which are unfortunate,” Skubal said. “But you can learn a lot from them and learn about yourself.”
These days Skubal tends toward chatty with teammates on start days. He does the USA Today crossword religiously. He stays approachable and stays loose. Leans on those breathing exercises and other psychological tricks when things get heated.
“Tarik has the ability to be the same person, joke around, and then lock it in,” Dingler said.
Tuesday was a little bit different than most. This was the postseason. A game the Tigers needed. And somehow, amid their brutal slide, they had lost each of the past three times their ace was on the mound.
Dingler first saw Skubal after the Tigers’ hitters meeting around 11 a.m.
“As soon as he walked in the doors today, I saw the intensity,” Dingler said.
The result of this odd blend of competitive and calm?
Skubal was at his best. He is a modern pitcher who has no interest in pitching to contact or leaning on trickery. He throws a fastball that hit triple digits five times in the seventh inning. He throws a slider that averaged 91.9 mph and kept Cleveland hitters off balance. He throws a changeup at 90 mph, his most devastating offering, and induced 12 whiffs Tuesday.
His raw power is impressive. His pinpoint command and impeccable execution is what makes him elite.
“He doesn’t just reach back and fire at 100,” Hinch said. “He’s a pitcher. And moments like that with the sliders or changeups or slow curveballs and then the front door two-seamers, he’s a beast.”
Skubal powered his way through the first seven innings. He kept the Guardians’ agents of chaos at bay even when the game was teetering toward disaster. Hinch even let Skubal have the first three batters of the eighth inning, pulling him after a season-high 107 pitches.
“It’s super hard to take him out of the game,” Hinch said, “especially when he’s as dominant as he was.”
The Tigers still needed a bit more than just Skubal to win. They scored in the first and took the lead on a Zach McKinstry safety squeeze in the seventh. Will Vest, the de facto closer who has saved 23 games for the Tigers, cleaned up the eighth and wiggled out of more mayhem in the ninth.
But this playoff game proved Skubal’s value all over again. The Tigers were 21-10 on Skubal days in the regular season. They were 66-65 without him. He is this team’s trump card and the biggest reason they cannot be totally cast aside in October.
After the game, Skubal walked tall and proud through the bottom level of Progressive Field, an ace who answered the bell when his team needed it most.
“He’s a tough guy to compete against,” Hinch said. “He’s an easy guy to compete with.”
(Top photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
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