On Wednesday night, A.J. Hinch was hearing it from all angles: Why not Skubal-Skenes? When Tuesday's game between the Tigers and Pirates was postponed and rescheduled as part of a split doubleheader on Wednesday, there was a chance for the two best pitchers in baseball to go head to head at Comerica Park.
Instead, it will be Tarik Skubal in Game 1 and Paul Skenes in Game 2.
"You know what’s funny, everybody started asking me about that last night, I got friends asking me, and I understand the appeal of it. Let me tell you how sophisticated this is," Hinch said jokingly Thursday on 97.1 The Ticket. "I go to Tarik Skubal and I’m like, ‘Hey, what game do you want?’ He’s like, 'Game 1.’ I'm like, ‘Cool.’ And then he gets Game 1, regardless of whether Skenes is pitching or not."
Skubal (1.99 ERA) was originally slated to pitch Tuesday night, while Skenes (1.78 ERA) was slated for Wednesday afternoon. Skenes, though, will take the ball in the second game of the doubleheader, scheduled for 5:40 pm. Don Kelly and the Pirates likely preferred their odds of winning one of the games with Skenes on the mound and Skubal on the bench.
"Maybe (Skubal's) a day-game guy and Skenes is a night-game guy. Their routines are all really different," said Hinch. "It was not to avoid it or it was not to create it. Sometimes it falls on the schedule well, sometimes it’s as simple as like, 'Hey, Tarik, sorry, man, I know you want the day game but we need to put you in the night game,'" for the good of the fans. "That’s probably not a path I’m going to go on."
Asked how quickly the game might have gone with Skubal and Skenes pitching, Hinch laughed and said "that's the one thought we probably should have taken into account" with both teams on getaway days.
"We have two games and then getting on a plane, they’re going to Pittsburgh, we’re going to Tampa, and we might have had the fastest game of the year of an hour and a half," he said. "I do love it when that theatre can be created if the schedule allows it, but I also understand reality that there’s more to it than simply the appeal."
And with the two teams meeting again next month in Pittsburgh, a Skubal-Skenes showdown is still on the table.