Welcome back, Tigers fans! The long winter is over and we have real baseball that counts for real stats on our screens and on our radio. The Tigers started the 2025 season against some of the hardest National League opponents in the game with the Dodgers. Today they did it again, squaring off against Nick Pivetta and the San Diego Padres. As it turns out, the damage wouldn’t be nearly as bad on Opening Day this year. The Tigers would lean on Tarik Skubal, and they’d hand him a nice lead before he even
took his first pitch of the season.
Things got started for the Tigers right in the first inning as Pivetta showed a lot of nerves, having a hard time finding the strike zone, and the Tigers didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity. After a leadoff strikeout by Kerry Carpenter, Gleyber Torres took a walk. Colt Keith then gave a little bloop single that should have probably been an out, but Ramon Laureano couldn’t quite get under it, putting two men safely aboard. Riley Greene walked to load the bases, then a Spencer Torkelson walk brought in the Tigers’ first run of the season.
The Tigers weren’t done yet, though, as fresh-faced rookie Kevin McGonigle got up to take his first major league at-bat and smacked a long double to right field, scoring Keith and Torkelson. A Dillon Dingler single brought another run in and put the Tigers up 4-0.
Then it was time for two-time Cy Young-winner Tarik Skubal to get his first start of the season. Skubal didn’t have as perfectly clean an inning as he probably would have hoped for. With one out, he gave up back-to-back singles to Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado, but thankfully followed that up with a swinging strikeout (that swing being contentious as Jackson Merrill did attempt to check swing but the third base umpire indicated he went). A groundout then ended the inning with no harm done.
Pivetta had found his groove better in the second inning, allowing a two-out single to Colt Keith, but the Tigers failed to convert the baserunner. Unfortunately for the Padres, Skubal was also more in the groove in the second inning, and he went through the Padres batters in order.
The Tigers weren’t prepared to rest on their early lead. In the top of the third, Spencer Torkelson singled. Then Kevin McGonigle got his second double of the game. Dingler struck out, but Parker Meadows then came up and hit a long fly single into left, scoring two runs. Two outs followed, but the Tigers were up 6-0.
Tarik Skubal came out and continued to dominate against the Padres with another 1-2-3 inning, ending with a pretty interesting catch from Riley Greene just on the warning track.
Nick Pivetta’s day was—unsurprisingly—done after three innings. Ron Marinaccio came in from the bullpen to replace him and immediately showed better command, going through the Tigers in order. Skubal returned the favor, continuing to churn through the Padres lineup with another three-up, three-down inning.
In the top of the fifth with one out, McGonigle just kept having the greatest first game ever as he hit a little dribbler towards second but beat it out to first, collecting the first single of his major league career. Dingler then hit a two-run bomb, bringing the Tigers score up to 8-0.
With two outs we got our first challenge of the season as Javier Baez disagreed (rightly) on a strike call, and it worked out to be a good thing as Baez then turned around and singled. The Tigers weren’t able to convert any additional runs, but it was still going pretty well. Guys, I’m not sure, but like, Tarik Skubal might be really good? He got another three outs in a row in the bottom of the fifth. Sorry, not sorry, Padres.
In the top of the sixth the next pitcher out of the Padres bullpen was Bradgley Rodriguez, who got the Tigers out in order. With one out in the bottom of the inning the Tigers turned to a play review. Fernando Tatis Jr. was called safe at first, narrowly beating out a throw from Baez, pulling Torkelson off the plate. The call was upheld and ruled an error for Baez. Skubal had his first truly rough moment of play since the first, as Bogaerts then doubled right down the left field line, and brought Tatis home, putting the Padres on the board for the first time in the game. Skubal turned things around, though, getting the next two outs. Six innings would be it for Skubal, going 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, on 74 pitches. And why not get the bullpen going with a 7-run lead.
The top of the seventh was a 1-2-3 inning for the Tigers, once again bested by Rodriguez. In the bottom of the inning Drew Anderson came out of the Tigers’ pen. Anderson was looking pretty good through two outs using his fairly lethal kick change, unfortunately Laureano got the best of him with a solo homer. Freddy Fermin walked, which brought out Chris Fetter to calm Anderson’s nerves a little. It’s been several years since Anderson pitched in America, stands to reason the nerves might run a little high. The chat worked all right as a groundout ended the inning with only the one run scoring.
David Morgan was next out of the Padres’ bullpen. The first out came on a high pop out at the plate to the catcher from Parker Meadows. Javier Baez got a one-out walk. Then, with two outs, Gleyber Torres singled, putting men on the corners. Unfortunately a Colt Keith lineout ended the inning, it was well hit, just in the exactly wrong location. In the bottom of the inning, Tatis got things started with a leadoff single against Anderson. Manny Machado drew a one-out walk, and that was it for Anderson, who was replaced by Tyler Holton. Holton did induce what looked like a double play, but the Tigers couldn’t appeal the safe call having already used and lost their review, so they had to settle for the one out. Miguel Andujar drew a walk to load the bases, creating the first really dangerous moment of the game for the Tigers. A pinch-hitting Nick Castellanos, in for Gavin Sheets, was up and hit a long fly for the final out of the inning.
Wandy Peralta was the next pitcher up for the Padres. With two outs, Kevin McGonigle proved he was an unstoppable force, hitting another single, giving him a four-hit day in his debut.
The Tigers weren’t able to turn his effort into another run, as Dingler hit a liner right back to the pitcher to end the inning. Will Vest came in to hopefully keep the Padres in check. He got two quick outs back-to-back. Vest collected the final out, and the Tigers had one heck of an Opening Day.
