After his ninth and final strikeout of the day on his 82nd and final pitch, Tarik Skubal nodded to himself as he walked off the mound. He even seemed to grin. He had carved up the Giants and made it look easy. If not for the steamy air in downtown Detroit, he may have hardly broken a sweat.
"Every time he goes out there, we feel like we're going to win against anybody that he throws against," said Kerry Carpenter, who had a pair of RBI singles in the Tigers' 5-1 win Monday at Comerica Park.
"He was dominant, period," said A.J. Hinch. "I mean, that's the quote. That's as good as he's been since coming back."
Skubal blew the Giants away with fastballs and buckled their knees with sliders and knuckle-curves. And whenever they were hunting the heater, here came the changeup. One start after tiring in the fourth and getting roughed up by the Royals, Skubal regained his form against a playoff team in the NL West.
That makes it three scoreless outings in four starts since he made his season debut following elbow surgery last August. That makes it 23 strikeouts to three walks in 17 innings. And that makes it official: Tarik Skubal is back.
"I felt like I was on attack mode the whole game," Skubal said. "I felt like my command got better as the game went on and it was good to adjust from the last one to this one, for sure. I think last time I lacked aggressiveness with certain pitches in certain counts where you shouldn't, so just keeping that attack pitch by pitch is the biggest adjustment."
Skubal's fastball Monday lived in the upper 90s. He both started and ended his day with a strikeout on 97 mph smoke. His breaking balls were sharp and his changeup was "excellent," said Hinch. He established the zone to make the Giants expand it, a pitcher in a groove. In the words of Hinch, "The art of pitching is still alive."
"I know there's a race to best pitches and best shapes and best stuff at all times, and that's very effective, but if you can show different things to hitters (each time through the order), it's incredibly impactful," said Hinch. "When he's throwing high velo and then he can drop a slow breaking ball in and it's 0-1, it just immediately puts the hitter on the defensive.
"I'm happy for him that he has the feel to do that in the midst of the strength behind his stuff. That is a well-rounded pitcher."
Skubal only came out of the game when he did because the Tigers are still easing him back into action. He understands that "it's part of the progression" and that he'll be "back to throwing 100 pitches and competing for six, seven, however many innings I can." For now, though, five dominant innings is good enough.
"That's what he does and we all know that's who he is," said Tigers infielder Zack Short. "Nobody's surprised. And that's what he's going to do for a long time."
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