Tigers 2, Rangers 1: Skubalriffic!
Fresh off their 73 road tripwhich, lets face it, after those first two games in Houston, did not look like it was going to go wellthe Detroit Tigers headed home, mowed the lawn, paid the gas bill, got some groceries, and squeaked out a 21 win to open a threegame weekend series against the Texas Rangers. And yes, the Tigers still have the best record in MajorLeague 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal, made his eighth start of the season for Detroit. Compared with last year hes been giving up, on average, one more hit per nine innings this year, but hes made up for that by walking fewer batters. His WHIP walks + hits per inning pitched, a rough idea of his effectiveness coming into today was still a veryrespectable 0. 984, and his FIP fieldingindependent pitching, basically your expected ERA based only on strikeouts, walks, and home runs allowed was actually down a touch from last year. So, same ol Tarik out there, more or less, but over his last six years hes really hit a new Skubal was Patrick Corbin, who you might best know from the 2019 Washington Nationals, to which he contributed mightily en route to the franchises first World Series victory
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. Since then its been iffy for Corbin; his lowest WHIP since was a middling 1. 468 in 2021, hell give up a bunch of home runs, and theres generally a lot of traffic on the basepaths. What hes done this year, though, is generally limited hard contact: last year his Hard Hit Rate was a whopping 46. 9%, but this year its down to 31. 7% leagueaverage is about 39%. He had himself a pretty solid start tonight, as youll was sizzling right from the start, striking out a pair in the first inning and touching tripledigits 100 mph, 1kmh with his fastball. Stuff like that was going to be pretty tough for a struggling Texas lineup to deal the bottom of the second, after a Spencer Torkelson walk and a Colt Keith grounder exchanged Keith for Torkelson as the runner on first, Dillon Dingler smacked a double into left that was misplayed by Wyatt Langford, allowing Keith to score all the way from first for a 10 Detroit carried on cutting through the Texas lineup like a really sharp Japanese knife through a block of tofu. For the third out of the fourth inning he broke out his first and only knucklecurve of the night, completely bamboozling Jonah Heim for strike three. It was a dozen up and a dozen down for the Rangers to that point, who had swungandmissed 17 the bottom of the fourth Riley Greene walked on a gift of a ballfour, and stole second base. Keith then smacked a single to centre, scoring Greene to put Detroit up was an odd moment in the fifth, as Marcus Semien fouled off the first pitch of his atbat and home plate umpire Malachi Moore, and the entire umpiring crew, somehow missed it. It was more than a foul tip, and Skubal was not happy about the missed call. AJ Hinch had to intervene and do the kvetching to avoid his starter getting tossed. In the end it mattered little as Skubal retired Semien on a ground Rangers got their first hit and their first baserunner to lead off the sixth, as Josh Smith singled to left
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. Skubal then plunked Ezequiel Duran, which put runners on first and second with none out. After a strikeout, Sam Haggerty hit a flair to right field which scored Smith, narrowing the lead to 21. However, another strikeout his tenth of the night and a forceout got the Tigers out of the inning without any further cruised through the seventh inning, striking out Adolis Garc iacute;a and Marcus Semien swinging, and coaxing a grounder to second out of Jace Jungs brother to finish his day. His final line: a mightyfine 7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K. Skubals 32 whiffs were just six shy of the alltime MLB The Changeup Kahnle took over for the eighth and surrendered but a harmless hey, Corbin was no slouch either: despite his notsogreat underthesurface stats his ERA is solid but his FIP and WHIP are lousy, he had a pretty good outing, giving up only a pair of runsbut walking fourin seven innings. The Tigers had a quick turnaround after playing a doubleheader on Thursday and getting into Detroit late, but either way they werent dropping a bakers dozen on him like they almost did in Colorado a couple of times this Vest came on in the ninth to nail down the game, and he got Langford to ground out, struck out Heim on a slider, and got Garc iacute;a to fly out to B aacute;ez in centre to end the Two of the series will start at 6:10 pm EDT on Saturday, with Jack Flaherty facing Jacob de Grom
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. Should be a good and NotesAfter Tarik Skubal clunker of a start in Seattle, and through tonight game, in starts and 37 IP, he has walked one batter and struck out 50. I no mathematician but that a 50:1 ratio of strikeouts to he walk? The nottheeasiesttowalk Maikel Garcia, of you predicted avier Bez is playing stellar centrefield and hitting. 317 with an. 835 OPS in the second week of May and is tied for the team lead in bWAR before the season started, well then, whoever made your crystal ball did a mighty fine you may have heard and read, former Tiger Chet Lemon has passed away. Early in the very first game I ever attended at Tiger Stadium, Lemon played in centre and made what, at the time, looked to be a sensational diving catch it turned out that he trapped it. I never heard a crowd get so loud before, and Il never forget the euphoria I felt witnessing that attempted catch. Fare thee well, Friday Open Thread asks what your preferred walkup music would be. Mine has always been ock Roll Singer by this day in 1960, the US Food and Drug Administration FDA approved Enovid as the firstever oral contraceptive. The availability of he Pill was a social and political catalyst which is still hotly debated today in some places.
