Tarik Skubal spent the night before his Major League debut watching Matthew Boyd fight off two nightmarish innings to keep the Tigers in a game. He also watched a veteran Major League pitcher struggle to get Isaac Paredes to chase a pitch. He could relate to the latter.
• Box
“I feel like he just doesn’t ever get fooled,” Skubal said of his Double-A Erie teammate before the Tigers’ 7-2 loss against the White Sox on Monday night. “He knows the strike zone so well, it’s actually incredible. Whenever I faced him in Toledo [at the alternate training site], it’s like I might as well just throw three strikes and hope he hits it somewhere that’s an out, because there’s no fooling him, there’s no setting him up. He’s very composed. He’s a good hitter. He just hits. And I’m excited to watch him play.”
Gio González knows the feeling. The 13-year veteran had the 21-year-old Paredes in a 1-2 count in his second Major League at-bat with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, having fouled off a changeup at the bottom of the zone, and tried to get him to chase. The high fastball didn’t tempt Paredes, so González put a changeup just below the zone, below the pitch he had fouled off. Paredes didn’t offer, running the count full.
With runners in motion, González put a fastball at the high outside corner. Paredes not only put his bat on it, he dunked a soft line drive into left field. It wasn’t glamorous, with a 70.5 mph exit velocity, but it plated two runs.
“Patient hitter, great hitter, great bat-to-ball skills,” Skubal said.
It was the best at-bat the Tigers had on a night when they struck out 12 times, 10 of them against González. And the at-bat came from the youngest player to grace a Tigers starting lineup since Avisail Garcia in 2012.
Jason Beck has covered the Tigers for MLB.com since 2002. Read Beck’s Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason.