CHICAGO — Tarik Skubal looked like a star for the Tigers in his first 10 starts this season. But a bumpy June and struggles over his last six starts momentarily removed him from that conversation.
Friday, though, saw Skubal rediscover that early-season form after giving Detroit his first quality start in a month en route to a 7-5 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field to capture the team’s sixth straight victory.
“We’re playing good baseball and expect to win every single ballgame that we play in,” Skubal said.
Skubal’s quality start was a sigh of relief for the Tigers, who finally saw their pitcher get in a groove after a tough past month.
Over his last six starts before Friday, the lefty allowed 26 earned runs across 30 innings and couldn’t seem to find his footing on the mound. The struggles led to an abysmal 7.80 ERA for Skubal during this span — raising his ERA from 2.15 to 4.06 in just one month.
“You just got to get the next opponent,” manager A.J. Hinch said on his advice to Skubal over the rough stretch. “We try to stay grounded here and just work on whatever we’re dealing with, with the opponent in front of us.”
Early on Friday, it looked like Skubal hadn’t fixed those problems just yet. He allowed a single to Tim Anderson, a no-doubt home run to Luis Robert and a double to José Abreu to begin his day on the mound.
A first-inning line of three hits and two runs is not the best way to get back on track.
“I threw the pitch right down the middle on the home run,” Skubal said. “[That] generally isn’t going to bode well for anybody, regardless of who’s in the box. Giving up two in the first isn’t ideal.”
But Skubal settled in, found his groove again and delivered his best start since June 1. He gave up two runs on six hits and one walk to go with seven strikeouts across six solid innings.
“He settled in and was really, really good as the game went on,” Hinch said. “He didn’t make pitches early and it got him. But all of the sudden, he found his slider, he found the changeup and even spun the slow curveball, which has been non-existent the last couple of starts.”
“We jumped out early,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “We were trying to add, but I give Skubal credit. He made a lot of good pitches to add to that score.”
Skubal — facing an all-righty White Sox lineup — had to lean on his offspeed stuff much more than usual on Friday, and it paid off. He threw his slider, changeup and knuckle-curve on 56 percent of his pitches to earn 11 whiffs and six called strikes.
“I felt like I used everything pretty well,” Skubal said. “I was able to slow them down and speed them up. I thought my slider was pretty good today and that’s the pitch that hasn’t been great for me lately. So that’s the pitch that got back to the movement that it normally does.”
As Skubal went deeper and deeper into the game, he felt more and more comfortable on the mound, with his teammates providing some run support. The Tigers’ offense scored two in the sixth and four in the seventh, as Jeimer Candelario did the heavy lifting by blasting a two-run shot and singling home another for a three-RBI game.
“Jeimer has tried everything to break out in this season-long funk that he’s been in and just loves to contribute to a win,” Hinch said. “The homer woke everybody up.”
Skubal’s performance on Friday was what the Tigers were used to at the start of the season — a pitcher who can give the team a chance to win every night.
To start the year, the southpaw was looked upon as that guy for Detroit. He was 4-2 with a 2.15 ERA through 10 starts.
That’s the Skubal that Detroit got back on Friday, even after a tough first inning. After the Abreu double, the left-hander set down 10 of the next 11 batters and looked to rediscover that early-season success formula.
“I think it is a [step forward] because of the way the last few starts have gone,” Hinch said. “I wanted the night to end on such a positive note for him after he did what he did.”