Getty Image / Lauren Leigh Bacho
Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is the breakout star of the Tigers’ miracle run the last two months of the season. While he’s been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball for a long time, he’s just now getting his due from the sport’s masses.
Skubal is set to pitch a deciding Game 5 of the ALDS against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday. But, prior to the start, he was asked about a camera shot that caught him cursing coming off the mound of his game 2 gem.
Skubal is almost certainly going to win the AL Cy Young this year. He went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 192 innings with a whip of 0.922. That’s absolutely dominant, and the lefty is a bona fide star.
Truthfully, he’s been that player for a few years. Since he posted an ERA of 4.34 in his first full season in 2021, it’s gone from 4.34 to 3.52 to 2.80 to 2.39. At 27, there’s still time for him to get even better, a scary thought for the rest of the league.
On Monday, with the Tigers trailing the series 1-0, Tarik Skubal threw a gem, tossing 7 shutout innings as the Tigers evened out the series. He showed a bit of emotion, too.
Tarik Skubal: STFU 🤣 pic.twitter.com/RfQV5dWtqc
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 7, 2024
His mom didn’t like his very public cursing, and yelled at her son on Twitter.
Tarik Daniel!!
— Laura Skubal (@lskubal) October 7, 2024
That’s a funny exchange. Before Game 5, here’s what Skubal had to say about it. He threw his mom under the bus a little bit!
That’s interesting that my mom went to Twitter to say that, because you should’ve heard my mom when I was growing up. So I think that’s interesting, yeah, that she wants to make that comment, but I’ve seen her get ejected out of plenty of high school basketball games, so I guess it might run in the family a little bit.
Seems like the Skubal clan is pretty intense.
The Tigers need one more great start out of Tarik Skubal in Saturday’s Game 5.