DETROIT — The 18th and 255th overall picks in the 2018 MLB Draft looked like two of the better rookie pitchers in the Majors as they shared the mound at Comerica Park on Wednesday night. Brady Singer and Tarik Skubal put on a pitching duel for six innings, spoiled only
DETROIT — The 18th and 255th overall picks in the 2018 MLB Draft looked like two of the better rookie pitchers in the Majors as they shared the mound at Comerica Park on Wednesday night. Brady Singer and
Six days after Singer put on a no-hit bid for 7 2/3 innings in Cleveland, he retired Detroit’s first 10 batters on his way to six scoreless innings, including a near-immaculate opening inning. This time, however, he had to trade zeros with Skubal, who showed the lights-out stuff that vaulted him from Detroit’s ninth-round pick two years ago to No. 46 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list this summer.
Skubal’s 15th pitch of the night — and 14th fastball — put him behind for good, driven by Perez deep to left for his sixth home run of the year and 14th career homer at Comerica Park for a 2-0 lead after
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Not only did Skubal (1-3) not walk a batter, he didn’t face a three-ball count after Whit Merrifield worked a full count to lead off the game. He fanned Nicky Lopez on three sliders to end the fifth inning and earn his career-high seventh strikeout. Skubal’s 90th and final pitch was a 95 mph fastball to strike out Dozier after Perez doubled in Merrifield for an add-on run.
Skubal became the second Tiger to strike out eight or more batters with no walks in one of his first six career outings, according to research on baseball-reference. Schoolboy Rowe was the other, fanning nine Indians over eight innings on April 21, 1933. But just as Rowe couldn’t match Cleveland’s Oral Hildebrand that day in a 5-0 shutout, Singer never let Skubal get back into Wednesday’s game.
Jason Beck has covered the Tigers for MLB.com since 2002. Read Beck’s Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason.