Detroit, MI

After a disastrous inning vs. the Guardians, Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers are on the verge of completing an epic collapse

Published

7 months ago

September 24, 2025

After a disastrous inning vs. the Guardians, Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers are on the verge of completing an epic collapse

CLEVELAND — It has taken an extraordinary and unlikely sequence of events over multiple months for the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians to be tied for the AL Central lead with five games left to play. It’s only fitting, then, that the game that secured the deadlock atop the division — Cleveland’s dramatic, 5-2 victory over Detroit on Tuesday at Progressive Field — featured one of the more preposterous half-innings imaginable, the ultimate display of baseball randomness and absurdity.

Entering the bottom of the sixth inning, Tarik Skubal, as usual, was in control. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner was tasked with reversing the misfortunes of a Tigers team that had seen its once-sturdy lead atop the AL Central completely evaporate over the past month. And for five innings against the rival Guardians — whose spectacularly hot stretch in September combined with Detroit’s skid to culminate in an unexpected division race — Skubal exhibited his trademark ace behavior.

The four-seam fastball was humming, climbing as high as 101 mph. The sinker was exploding into the strike zone at unhittable angles. The slider and knuckle-curve were breaking sharply. And, of course, the changeup was giving hitters fits. When Skubal struck out David Fry with a 99.6 mph heater to end the fourth, he confidently skipped off the mound back toward the dugout, certain another masterpiece was in progress. Cleveland mustered two baserunners in the fifth, but Skubal squashed the threat, finishing the frame with his pitch count at just 74.

[Get more Detroit news: Tigers team feed]

The Tigers had afforded Skubal a two-run lead thanks to a Wenceel Perez RBI double in the third and a Riley Greene solo home run in the sixth. Given how Skubal was throwing, those two runs appeared to be a rather comfortable cushion on which Detroit could rely en route to a victory that would snap its six-game losing streak.

But the Guardians had other plans.

With Skubal dialed in, fighting fire with fire was a fool’s errand, especially given Cleveland’s dearth of offensive thump; the Guardians rank 28th in MLB in slugging percentage, 30th in barrel rate, 30th in hard-hit rate and 30th in average exit velocity. Instead, Steven Kwan led off the sixth with a picturesque bunt on the first pitch from Skubal, racing to first with hopes of sparking a rally.

Before the packed Progressive Field crowd of nearly 30,000 could quiet down after Kwan’s successful gambit, No. 2 hitter Angel Martínez followed with another bunt on the first pitch of his showdown with Skubal. The ball trickled down the first-base line with delicate precision, forcing Skubal to charge and either attempt to make a difficult play or pocket the ball and yield another baserunner with no outs and José Ramírez coming up.

Skubal opted for the former, but in unthinkable fashion: Facing home plate, he reached down, grabbed the ball and flipped it through his legs toward first, as if he were hiking a football. The ball sailed over first baseman Spencer Torkelson’s head and into foul territory, allowing Kwan to reach third base and Martínez to coast into second.

“He was in a tough position as a left-handed pitcher to make that play in general and didn’t want to wheel and throw it down the line,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch explained postgame. “So instead, he chose to do the emergency flip, which is not something that is easy to do, and it obviously didn’t produce a good play.”

Skubal echoed that sentiment, referring to the Martínez ball as an “impossible play” while reiterating his intention to prevent a second consecutive bunt hit at all costs. He also revealed that the between-the-legs toss was something he’d tried before: “Yeah, in Miami, actually,” he said. “Same result.”

Indeed, Skubal attempted a near carbon-copy of the play two years ago against the Marlins, when Jon Berti chopped a ball down the first-base line. The result was nearly identical, but the circumstances couldn’t have been more different. That was in the second inning of a July contest on a Sunday afternoon in Miami. Skubal wasn’t Skubal yet, and the Tigers were 47-59. Trying something like that then? Fine.

But on Tuesday, in the biggest game of the season thus far, with Guardians players and their fans desperate for any ounce of momentum? That was a poor choice.

“That is an example of an uncharacteristic mistake piling up on us at the worst time,” Hinch said.

Of course, this was an exceptionally challenging play for Skubal; expecting him to have recorded an out without trouble feels unfair. That said, his decision to uncork a low-probability toss rather than hold on to the ball and keep Kwan and Martínez at first and second proved extremely costly.

And so, with the bunts having spiked the volume in the venue, up came Ramírez to try to cash in. As Cleveland’s top slugging threat, Ramírez was the one Guardian Skubal didn’t need to worry about attempting a bunt. But baseball has a funny way of surprising you. When Ramírez swung hard at a 99.9-mph fastball with two strikes, the result was roughly the same as the two bunts that preceded it: a weak roller up the third-base line, poorly struck with a harmless exit velocity of 65.5 mph, and too slow for third baseman Zach McKinstry to corral and make a play. Kwan scampered home for Cleveland’s first run. Martínez advanced to third.

The unexpected rally was far from over. But the game took a scary turn before things continued. With still no outs and runners on the corners, Fry came up to the plate. Sticking with the theme of the inning, he squared around to attempt to bunt in hopes of garnering another defensive gaffe. But Skubal’s 99.1-mph fastball ran up and in, hitting Fry squarely in the nose and sending him to the ground.

Although it was ruled a foul ball, replay fairly clearly showed that the pitch didn’t graze Fry’s bat at all, instead making flush contact with his face — a terrifying sequence considering the velocity. The crowd went silent, and players on both teams, including Skubal, were visibly shaken. Thankfully, Fry was able to rise to his feet and get on the cart to be transported to a nearby hospital, where he is expected to remain overnight as he undergoes testing.

“I’ve already reached out to him,” Skubal said afterward. “I look forward to, hopefully at some point tonight or tomorrow morning, getting a text from him and making sure he’s all good. The health of him is more important than a baseball game.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said postgame that Fry stayed conscious the whole time and the team would provide an update as soon as possible on Wednesday.

Such a harrowing injury scare is difficult to move past, but the high-stakes timing forced the two teams to reengage immediately — and it took just one pitch for the chaos to resume. Rookie George Valera replaced Fry in the batter’s box with a 2-2 count, and Skubal’s first pitch to the new batter was a wayward changeup that got past catcher Dillon Dingler and allowed Martínez to score the tying run, with Ramírez advancing to second.

Valera eventually struck out, but then, while facing Gabriel Arias, Skubal balked for just the second time in his career, enabling Ramírez to move to third, still with one out. He then scored easily when Arias tapped one softly to first base, marking Cleveland’s third run of the inning and a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Before Tuesday’s sixth inning, Skubal had allowed just one run in 27 innings against the Guardians this season, with 37 strikeouts and just five walks. Then, over the span of five plate appearances — with an average exit velocity of 52.8 mph and without a single ball leaving the infield, except for the one Skubal sailed himself — the Guardians conjured three runs. Because of course they did.

“They showed that the team that made the most contact got rewarded for it, even if it wasn’t great contact,” Hinch said. “They did a good job with that.”

To his point, Detroit’s disastrous inning wouldn’t have loomed quite as large had the Tigers been more productive offensively. But Cleveland starter Gavin Williams had a heck of a night himself, matching a career high with 12 strikeouts over six solid innings of work. Detroit struck out 19 times total Tuesday, the franchise’s most in a nine-inning game since the 2019 club — a team that would go on to lose 114 games — matched the ignominious feat on two occasions.

This Tigers team will not lose 114 games. In fact, this Tigers team might still win the AL Central, despite an unfathomably bad run of play that has them at risk of making history for all the wrong reasons. With the victory Tuesday, Cleveland clinched the season series over Detroit, giving the Guards a critical tiebreaker should the two teams finish with the same record after 162. But there’s still ample opportunity for the Tigers to avoid that fate and fight their way back into enviable playoff position.

“We got to flush today’s game and then get ready to play again tomorrow. The team across the way doesn’t feel bad for us, so there’s no reason we should feel bad for ourselves,” Skubal said. “That opportunity to come out there and win tomorrow and win a series — I think that’s what really matters.”

“We have to get to tomorrow and get to a better result,” Hinch said. “Everybody knows. There’s no hiding behind anything other than showing up ready to play.”

Source link

Click to comment

Detroit, MI

Atlanta 5, Detroit 2: Adding injuries to insult

Published

6 hours ago

April 29, 2026

Press Room

Atlanta 5, Detroit 2: Adding injuries to insult

After a pit-stop on the way down I-75 for three games and some questionable “chili,” the Tigers continued south to visit the red-hot Atlanta ball club for the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday night. The Tigers’ bats ran cold, two key players left the game with injuries, and they dropped the opener to the tune of a 5-2 tally.

Making his sixth start of the season for the Tigers was Casey Mize, and he’s looked good in his last couple of starts before tonight. Arguably, his April 17 outing in Boston was one of the best of his career: 6 2/3 shutout innings, three hits, one walk and seven strikeouts? By the stat of Game Score — a rough index to try and determine how good a start is — that was a 74, the highest of his career, one above a stellar start in 2021 against the Mariners. (There are some names in that box score, eh?)

Facing Mize and the Tigers was lefty Martín Pérez, making his fourth start (against two relief appearances) for Atlanta this year. He spent nine years in the Rangers’ rotation before bouncing around a little: some time with the Twins, another stint in Texas, and the south side of Chicago last year. He didn’t make Atlanta’s big-league roster out of Spring Training, but was quickly recalled from Triple-A and has had some nice appearances so far. He’ll give you some innings, won’t dominate you too often, generally limits home-run power and, while he used to be an extreme ground-ball pitcher early in his career, has become much less so recently.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the first, Ronald Acuña Jr. smacked a double to the wall, but Mize was able to get the next three batters and strand him at third. He then sawed-through the next three batters in the second, including featuring that right-on-right splitter that, earlier in his career, he’d use primarily against lefties alone.

Meanwhile, Pérez was pulling the string with his changeup more than a kid with a new Chatty Cathy doll: he struck out both Spencer Torkelson, Kevin McGonigle and Jahmai Jones (three hitters on heaters lately) with straight change-ups right down the middle. You know what I said about not dominating teams? Well, he had it tonight.

Atlanta got on the board first with a pair of doubles to start the bottom of the third inning, by Mike Yastrzemski and Acuña to put the home team up 1-0, and let the record show that I spelled Yastrzemski right without looking. The next batter, Drake Baldwin, hit a dribbler up the first-base line; Mize fielded the ball and tossed underhand to first for the out, and he came up limping, favouring his right leg, and that was it for Mize; it was later reported that he had some “right groin tightness.”

View Link

Brant Hurter, who’s been used as a multi-inning reliever, came on for Mize and gave up a sacrifice-fly liner to score Acuña for a 2-0 lead.

Dillon Dingler managed the first Tiger hit with one out in the fourth, despite getting three on base before that via the base-on-balls. Alas, Dingler was stranded there after Riley Greene flew out and Torkelson struck out.

Hao-Yu Lee started the fifth with a double, and Javier Báez hit a grounder to shortstop. The throw to first was high, and Báez figured he could get underneath a tag by sliding into first base — which is never a good idea, kids — and ended up twisting his right ankle. He had to be taken off the field on a cart, but if you can have a little hope here, he was seen wiggling and moving his ankle around while on the cart.

View Link

(I don’t want to have to point this out, but… that belt of Báez looks a little too Zubaz-ish for my liking. IYKYK.)

After Gleyber Torres walked, McGonigle hit a long fly ball to right, but it was caught halfway up the wall for the third out and the threat was extinguished.

Pérez, whose pitch count was pushed up by a few long at-bats, was out after five innings and Didier Fuentes, a young right-hander from Colombia, took over and he had his slider working overtime, scattering a Greene walk harmlessly amid three quick outs. The Tigers struck out less than the Braves in this one, and hit the ball pretty solidly for the most part, but they neglected to hit them where they ain’t.

Burch Smith took over for Hurter to start the sixth, facing the heart of the order. He got Matt Olson to strike out swinging, and after walking Ozzie Albies, he got Michael Harris II to ground into an inning-ending double play. Smith carried on into the seventh, and with two outs he gave up a double to Mauricio Dubón, who scored on a Yastrzemski single just over Torres’ glove to make it 3-0. But then Chris Fetter paid Smith a visit, whispered some sweet nothings into Smith’s ear, and he struck out Acuña on three pitches.

In the top of the eighth McGonigle singled and Dingler doubled, putting runners on second and third with two outs and bringing Greene to the plate as the tying run. Alas, Greene struck out looking on a pitch that barely nicked the corner of the strike zone, and the inning was over.

Tyler Holton relieved Smith in the bottom of the eighth, and the Georgians tacked-on a pair of runs but-quick: with one out Olson doubled and Albies smacked a fat changeup over the fence for a 5-0 lead.

Torkelson came up first in the ninth inning for one last chance to extend his home run-hitting streak, but he grounded out to third; fun while it lasted. After Colt Keith singled, Wenceel Pérez hit his second home run of the year to get the Tigers on the board, but that would be the final scoring action of the game.

Final score: Atlanta 5, Detroit 2

Notes and Numbers

How about that Spencer Torkelson fellow? Five straight games with a home run last week, and still didn’t win American League Player of the Week. That honour went to the A’s Carlos Cortes who went 13-for-24 with three dingers, which is fine, I guess. That Torkelson: he don’t get no respect, I’ll tell ya.
After Sunday’s game, the Tigers as a team had the third-highest OPS (and OPS+) in the American League. Detroit’s OPS was .750, with an OPS+ of 106; if you don’t like anything related to OPS, the Tigers were fourth in batting average (.253; league-average is .239, which still boggles my mind).
First Alex Cora in Boston, then Rob Thomson in Philadelphia: managers are getting fired left, right and centre! Who do you have next on your list?
On this day in 1900, Dutch astonomer Jan Oort was born. He’s probably most famous for lending his name to the Oort Cloud, the spherical repository of tiny, icy bodies past the Kuiper Belt that most likely is the source of comets. But an argument could be made that his calculations regarding the rotation of the Milky Way, and the conclusion that there must be a lot of unseen (i.e., “dark”) matter kicking around, was the most important in the broader science of cosmology.

Source link

Detroit, MI

Jackson Jobe throws first bullpen in return from Tommy John surgery

Published

18 hours ago

April 28, 2026

Press Room

Jackson Jobe throws first bullpen in return from Tommy John surgery

ATLANTA – Detroit Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe has taken a big step in his return.

The 23-year-old completed his first bullpen session Tuesday, April 28, as he continues his rehabilitation program after Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

He isn’t joining the Tigers anytime soon.

“He’s well off into the future,” manager A.J. Hinch said before Tuesday’s opener of a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. “But it’s nice to see him change his program a little bit.”

The Tigers hope Jobe will be available in August to pitch MLB innings.

Before that happens, Jobe needs to complete an abundance of bullpen sessions, several live batting practice sessions and then five or six starts on a rehab assignment. Only then will the Tigers be ready to decide whether to promote him to MLB or let him work in Triple-A.

That decision is more than three months away.

Jobe hasn’t pitched for the Tigers since May 28, 2025, the final of 10 starts in which he registered a 4.22 ERA with 27 walks (12.4% walk rate) and 39 strikeouts (17.9% strikeout rate) across 49 innings. He suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery on June 16, 2025.

Jobe made his MLB debut in September 2024.

Before his Tigers debut, Jobe struggled in two starts for Triple-A Toledo in 2024. He allowed six runs on 12 hits and five walks with seven strikeouts over nine innings in those two starts for the Mud Hens.

The Tigers selected Jobe with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft.

Troy Melton building workload as starter

The Tigers need help in the bullpen.

But right-hander Troy Melton is building his workload as a starter – not a reliever – as he returns from right elbow inflammation. The 25-year-old has been sidelined since spring training, but on Tuesday, he completed his second live batting practice session in preparation for a rehab assignment.

Melton isn’t eligible to pitch for the Tigers until May 25.

“He’ll have a full spring training,” Hinch said.

Expect about six starts for Melton during his rehab assignment as the Tigers replicate a spring training experience. The timeline of six starts would make him ready to join the Tigers in late May.

That’s right on schedule.

Right-handed reliever Beau Brieske (left adductor strain) joined Melton in Tuesday’s live batting practice session, while Zach McKinstry (left hip/abdominal inflammation) swung in the batters box against both pitchers.

The session took place in Lakeland, Florida.

“We’re chipping away at this health thing,” Hinch said. “We’re feeling better by the update so far.”

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Source link

Detroit, MI

Where to watch Detroit Tigers vs Atlanta Braves: TV channel, start time, streaming for Apr. 28

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2026

Press Room

Where to watch Detroit Tigers vs Atlanta Braves: TV channel, start time, streaming for Apr. 28

Baseball is back and finding what channel your favorite team is playing on has become a little bit more confusing since MLB announced plans to produce and distribute broadcasts for nearly a third of the league.

We’re here to help. Here’s everything you need to know Tuesday as the Detroit Tigers visit the Atlanta Braves.

See USA TODAY’s sortable MLB schedule to filter by team or division.