On August 18, 2020, 23-year-old left-hander Tarik Skubal made his major league debut for a Detroit Tigers team that went on to miss the postseason for a sixth consecutive season.
Over the next six years, Skubal helped Detroit reach the postseason over two consecutive seasons, with highlights being his performance in Game 5 of last year’s ALDS and lowlights like the grand slam he allowed to Lane Thomas in the 2024 ALDS. He also made his name officially known by winning two consecutive AL Cy Young awards,
winning the pitching triple crown in 2024— the first Tiger to do so since Justin Verlander in 2011.
Skubal made his final start as a Tiger on July 29, and the baseball world was stunned to see him shipped off to Los Angeles. Now, for the first time as a visiting player, he returns to the city he called home for parts of seven seasons. When asked by David Vassegh of AM 570 about the emotions of returning to Comerica Park, Skubal has a rather stoic mindset.
“The game of baseball is going to stay the game of baseball. That’s something I pride myself on, treating every game as the same. I’m very familiar with the stadium and all the guys across the way, and I look forward to seeing all those guys too. Those guys are my really good friends. We’re going to have relationships beyond baseball, so I look forward to getting back there and pitching.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the losing end of a fierce pitcher’s duel against Chris Sale and the Atlanta Braves on Thursday, where a first-pitch leadoff home run from Drake Baldwin was the only time any side could scratch across a run.
Yamamoto spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA following the Dodgers’ 1-0 loss about his ability to navigate Atlanta’s lineup following the Baldwin home run while also finding a way to pitch deep into the game, with a final line of 6 1/3 innings.
“It’s a great lineup, I knew that. I just had to stay sharp the whole game.”
Getting swept against a team that is also a division leader stings, but there’s still a chance to go out win games over the weekend. That’s the mindset that Dave Roberts has following Thursday’s defeat, per Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times.
“I wish we’d played better,” Roberts said. “I wish we’d have won the game. I wish we’d won the series. It didn’t happen. But right now, there’s nothing we can do but just go out there and keep trying to get better and win a baseball game [Friday].”
