Detroit Tigers lose 7th straight in Tarik Skubal’s debut against White Sox

Detroit Free Press

Another day, another MLB debut for a Detroit Tigers prospect.

After third baseman Isaac Paredes succeeded in his first big-league appearance Monday with two RBIs — the second of three call-ups — left-hander Tarik Skubal, made his first outing Tuesday in a 10-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The Tigers have lost seven consecutive games and dropped to 9-12 in the 60-game season.

On a pitch-count limit, Skubal needed 52 pitches to get through two innings before exiting. He gave up four runs, seven hits and one walk with just one strikeout.

[ Evaluating Tarik Skubal’s MLB debut for Detroit Tigers ]

Skubal, 23, showed a high strikeout rate in the minors, exemplified by his 82 strikeouts in 42⅓ innings across nine games for Double-A Erie in 2019. He came to Detroit after punching out 212 batters in 33 games (25 starts) at the minor-league level.

The Tigers will turn to right-hander Casey Mize, the No. 1 overall pick from the 2018 draft, for Game 3 of the four-game series Wednesday. Righty Spencer Turnbull gets the ball Thursday.

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A different Gregory Soto

Through 10⅓ scoreless innings entering Monday’s game, reliever Gregory Soto had only allowed three hits and two walks. But he entered the eighth and gave up four runs on two hits with one walk. His ERA jumped to 3.48.

John Schriber replaced him to clean up, but by the end of the inning, the White Sox increased their lead to six runs. 

Harold Castro’s injury

In the fifth inning, utilityman Harold Castro tried to beat out a grounder to second base. His hustle wasn’t enough and he came up limping and left the game with apparent left hamstring tightness. He was replaced in right field by Victor Reyes.

Castro finished the game 1-for-3. He has a .276 average in 26 at-bats across 14 games this season.

Tigers lineup changes

With Niko Goodrum returning from a back injury to the leadoff spot JaCoby Jones was shifted down the lineup to the No. 7 spot. Because of this, Paredes moved to the nine-hole for the second game of his big-league career after batting No. 8 in his debut Monday.

Paredes ended Tuesday 0-for-3 with a walk and one strikeout.

Austin Romine’s baserunning 

As a career backup before coming to the Tigers, catcher Austin Romine hasn’t received enough credit. He is hitting .375 with seven RBIs with runners in scoring position this season, but he displayed his baseball IQ on the basepaths Monday.

Romine’s third-inning double set the table, and a good jump on Paredes’ flyout to right field allowed him to advance to third standing up. And he trotted home with ease on Niko Goodrum’s sacrifice fly to right field because of another smart jump to put the Tigers on the board.

He finished 2-for-4 with a single, double and strikeout. 

Evan Petzold is a sports reporting intern at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. 

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