On the eve of the start of the American League Division Series, Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal won the first of what will likely be a wave of postseason awards as Baseball Digest named him its MLB Pitcher of the Year.

Baseball Digest is in its 83rd year as a publication. Last year’s pitcher of the year was New York Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole, who went on to win the American League Cy Young award.

The Tigers play game one of the ALDS on Saturday at Cleveland. Skubal is expected to start in Game 2 on Monday.

In his first postseason start against the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series, he threw six innings and earned the victory. He struck out six.

The 27-year-old just wrapped up the best season of his career and won the AL pitching triple crown, as he led the lead in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

He finished the season 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts. Atlanta’s Chris Sale did the same thing in the National League, as he went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts.

During an interview with MLB Network in September, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the quiet part out loud about his ace and his breakthrough season.

“Obviously he is the front runner for the Cy Young (award),” Hinch said. “I think he should win it.”

If Skubal is able to win the award, he would become the fifth Detroit pitcher to claim the award and the last to do so since Max Scherzer in 2013. Denny McLain won it twice.

He is also on the All-MLB Team ballot, another honor that is released after the postseason ends.

It’s hard to believe there were rumblings in July that the Tigers might trade him, given that they were well out of the playoff race at the time.

But, the Tigers hung onto him and put together an unprecedented run starting in mid-August — one Skubal anchored in the rotation — to bring home their first playoff berth in a decade.

“He is a frontline starter and when you have those, you want him to pitch every five or six days because he is somebody who can anchor a staff,” Hinch said.

The Tigers drafted him out of Seattle University in 2018. The ninth-round selection moved quickly through the system and made his Majors debut in 2020. This season isn’t just a potential award-winning season for him — it’s a breakthrough season. He hadn’t won more than eight games in a season before, which came in 2021.

When do the Detroit Lions play today?

Welcome to Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season, which began Thursday night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons squaring off in an overtime NFC South Division matchup.

The Lions do not play on Sunday, enjoying the bye week after their 3-1 start to the season has them in second place in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings.

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Here’s a quick look at the Lions in Week 5.

Do the Lions play today?

No. The Lions do not play today or this week for that matter. They are on a bye week, after winning at home in Week 4 on Monday night, 42-29, in an entertaining battle against the Seattle Seahawks. Jared Goff set a record by completing all 18 of his passes, though our film study showed there was still room for improvement. The Lions have a plus-22 point-differential with 104 points scored against 82 allowed.

The Lions join three other teams on a bye, along with the Los Angeles Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. This is the first week with byes this season. The latest bye week is Week 14, when six teams are off.

MITCH ALBOM: Jared Goff’s flawless night means anything is possible for Detroit Lions

Week 5 schedule NFL

Follow live NFL Week 5 scores at https://sportsdata.usatoday.com.

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The Detroit Tigers flipped a switch and turned into the hottest team down the final stretch of the regular season that got them into the playoffs for the first time since 2014. They kept that momentum in the Wild Card round by sweeping the Houston Astros and ending their American League record of seven straight ALCS appearances.

But, when facing a Cleveland Guardians team who has been one of the best teams in the league all season long without their ace Tarik Skubal going in Game 1, there were some questions if they would be able to keep that magic going.

Since manager A.J. Hinch went with an opener to close out the Wild Card matchup, he had some options within his starting rotation to choose from, but he opted to go back to the reliever strategy to begin the game.

That completely backfired.

Tyler Holton was shelled for three runs on two hits, failing to record an out before getting pulled from his outing.

Hinch called upon starter Reese Olson to come out of the bullpen, and even though he gave up the three-run homer to Lance Thomas that made it 5-0 immediately when taking the mound, the right-hander settled in after that to throw five innings where he gave up just three hits and was credited with one earned run.

Should the Tigers skipper just have gone with Olson to start the game?

Perhaps.

It’s hard to argue with what Hinch has been doing since he’s pushed all the right buttons coming into this ALDS matchup, but after everything reset and there was time for Detroit to put together a strategy, throwing one of their two available starters might have been the better idea than going with yet another bullpen game.

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it’s clear the Guardians were ready to jump all over Holton in this situation, and once Olson overcame the foreign role of coming out of the bullpen, he was able to pitch a relative gem that could have come from opening pitch.

Hinch was never going to shy away from doing things that has gotten his team to this point, but that mindset might have also hurt the Tigers in Game 1.

They now face an uphill battle as they look to advance to the Championship Series.