DETROIT — The last time Tarik Skubal had allowed a home run at Comerica Park, Royals slugger Vinnie Pasquantino was playing in his fifth Major League game. The defense behind Skubal that day included Kody Clemens at second base, Jeimer Candelario at third and Willi Castro in right. And, no, Skubal hadn’t suffered the flexor tendon injury that required surgery to repair and cost him nearly a year to rehab.
For all the ups and downs Skubal has pitched through over 10 starts since his return on July 4, his ability to keep the ball in the park has been fairly consistent. He entered Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Yankees having allowed one home run over 44 1/3 innings this season, a Triston Casas three-run drive at Fenway Park on Aug. 11. Skubal’s big innings in other defeats had come together on a flurry of smaller hits rather than a big fly.
Tuesday was a plot twist for Skubal, who had no big inning to regret, just a pair of solo homers and a passed ball that slammed shut his escape hatch from a bases-loaded jam in his sixth and final inning. The only familiarity was the struggle for run support, leaving him little forgiveness on a night when his stuff arguably deserved better than the results.
“I felt like I did what I was supposed to do, give our team a chance to win,” Skubal said. “That’s your job as a starting pitcher. Unfortunately, that beats us tonight, but I like our odds mostly.”
One night after Reese Olson racked up 10 strikeouts over 4 1/3 innings with a mix of fastballs, sliders and changeups, Skubal simplified the mix, fanning nine over six innings with largely a combination of high fastballs, sinkers and low changeups. The latter is a pitch he has emphasized in recent weeks.
“I was pretty confident in it,” Skubal said. “I was throwing it in the strike zone, getting a lot of chase when I needed it to. It was good. I felt like I was able to keep them off-balance.”
More than half of Skubal’s 97 pitches were fastballs (29) or changeups (26). Add in 10 sinkers, and the strategy of speeding up and slowing down comprised about two-thirds of his outing.
For the most part, it worked. Skubal’s fastball drew a dozen called strikes. His changeup, in turn, coaxed a dozen swings-and-misses. The Yankees, true to their all-or-nothing reputation, put just two changeups in play on 18 swings. Conversely, they didn’t chase a single fastball out of the zone according to Statcast, but they took more fastballs for strikes (12) than they swung at (9).
“I think he’s tired of people trying to ambush him,” manager A.J. Hinch said in trying to explain the changeups.
That aggressiveness became evident when Yankees leadoff hitter DJ LeMahieu, who has swung at the first pitch in just 20.5 percent of his at-bats this season and 19.9 percent for his career, flew out to center on Skubal’s first pitch of the night, a 94 mph fastball at the high-inside corner of the zone.
“He never swings at the first pitch, or rarely does, in any of his at-bats, let alone the first pitch of the game,” Hinch continued. “This is a number of games in a row where guys are trying to come out and ambush him, and so he’s going to counter with some offspeed, changeups, better-placed fastballs. And I thought that was awesome. He threw the ball very well.”
The first home run came two batters and several pitches after that first-pitch flyout. Gleyber Torres battled Skubal for eight pitches, fouling off four consecutive pitches in a 2-2 count. Skubal couldn’t get a 97 mph sinker off the plate past him, then couldn’t get him to offer at a 97 mph four-seamer around shoulder level. With a full count, he came back over the plate with another 97 mph heater and watched Torres send it a Statcast-projected 454 feet to left field, the third-longest homer at Comerica Park this season.
“I’m going to challenge him every time in the first inning with a heater,” said Skubal, who acknowledged the risk of fastballs in the zone from lefties to this righty-hitting lineup.
“Super-dangerous sequence,” Hinch said, “and we pay for it.”
The second homer was a hanging 1-2 slider with two outs to Kyle Higashioka, a right idea with wrong execution.
“I didn’t think he hit it that well,” Skubal said. “Good wind or whatever.”