Remember that one six-word story? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Yeah, that’s pretty sad, but I have one that’s even worse for you: “Skubal strikes out twelve, Tigers lose.”
Tigers lose, 5-2, and are swept out of New York. Detroit will take an 18-16 record to Progressive Field to face the division-leading Cleveland Guardians; oh boy!
Remember game three of the 2013 American League Championship Series? When Justin Verlander spun eight masterful postseason innings, fresh off of his dominant Divisional Series performance against the Oakland Athletics? (Side note: dear God, the Athletics ARE better than us right now, aren’t they?) That’s a great memory, isn’t it? Right, everybody?
NO! It’s not. Detroit lost that game 1-0, and a win in that game at the very least forces a game 7. That year was Detroit’s last best chance after squandering the 2012 World Series, and nobody is sitting around reminiscing on that day when the Tigers offense absolutely blew it, garnering six hits but never driving one in for poor JV.
Through six innings, Tarik Skubal was cursed to Verlander’s fate on this Sunday afternoon, albeit in a May regular season road environment. In six innings today, Skubal struck out twelve Yankees, a career-high.
New career-high 12 strikeouts for Skub!
He’s the youngest Tigers pitcher to record 12+ strikeouts in a game since Max Scherzer had 14 punchouts on May 30, 2010. pic.twitter.com/w9K3fUbDWS
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 5, 2024
Do you know how many hits the Detroit Tigers had through six innings? One.
That one hit through six innings was a first-inning two-out double from Spencer Torkelson. (Colt Keith, the worst hitter by OPS in today’s Tigers lineup despite a walk today, promptly struck out to end that threat.) Thankfully, there was more where that came from for Torkelson, but that wasn’t quite enough for Detroit to win today.
A seventh-inning rally
In the seventh inning, Mark Canha hit a sharp line-drive single to right field to open the frame, and after a five-pitch Riley Greene strikeout, Jake Rogers matched Mark Canha with a sharp line-drive single to right field of his own. This led Yankees manager Aaron Boone to lift starting pitcher Nestor Cortes in favor of Ian Hamilton.
Ian Hamilton might not have been the best choice; he lacked feel for the ball even in his warm-up pitches, one of which was shown on the Bally Sports Detroit broadcast. As soon as he came into the game, Spencer Torkelson pounced, knocking his second double of the day and putting the Tigers on the board, down 2-1.
Colt Keith followed up Torkelson’s uncharacteristic success at the plate (this season, at least) with a little uncharacteristic success of his own — a walk! Then, with the bases loaded, Javy Báez beat out a potential double play to notch an RBI and tie the game up, 2-2.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch pinch-hit Kerry Carpenter for Parker Meadows, who left today’s game sporting a .097 batting average, as Aaron Boone turned to Victor González from the Yankees bullpen. Carpenter proceeded to ground-out, ending the only Tigers threat of the day.
The bullpen continues to sour
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Shelby Miller’s ERA rose to 4.60 as he allowed three baserunners and struck out one before handing the ball over to Andrew Chafin. Chafin proceeded to give up a bases-clearing double to superstar Juan Soto. The only real strategy for pitching to Soto is to do so with the bases clear. That’s on Miller, who has been rough after some good outings early in March and April.
5-2, Yankees. Game over.
The damage could have been worse, too: Andrew Chafin walked the next two batters, loading the bases, then caught an Alex Verdugo line-out to the pitcher’s mound before leaving the game. Alex Lange replaced Chafin to face Gleyber Torres and found himself in a long battle himself, this one nine pitches, before getting Torres to fly out 338 feet to Kerry Carpenter.
The Tigers had one more shot in the eighth inning, but did not score. While it rained steadily throughout today’s game, the rain became too much in the bottom of the eighth inning, leading to a rain delay and, ultimately, the game being called at 5-2.
The Tigers now head to Cleveland for three with the first place Guardians before beginning their next homestand on Friday against the flailing Houston Astros.