Detroit Tigers prospect Tarik Skubal is starting to find his game over his past five starts despite leading the MLB in losses.
If you were to only look at the 24-year old left-hander’s win/loss record along with his ERA through the first nine starts of his 2021 season, you’d understand why he had been removed from the starting rotation earlier in the season.
Skubal leads the league with seven losses to date on the season. Part of that is due to playing on one of the league’s worst teams. Another, to put it simply, Skubal started the season off very poorly but has since rebounded. Skubal carried an elevated 7.71 ERA into his third start of the season after allowing eight runs in his first 9.1 innings of work.
Don’t Worry About Detroit Tigers Pitching Prospect Tarik Skubal; He’s Starting To Find His Rhythm
In that third start, he only lasted a mere four innings for the second straight start and then failed to total five innings of work in a single putting until May 7th. Since that five-inning outing against Minnesota to start May, Skubal hasn’t pitched less than five innings in a game.
Skubal has 39 strikeouts to nine walks during that span, yielding just 10 runs on 25 hits over 27 innings of work. That’s good for an ERA of 3.33 over those last five starts combined. Not only does the often over scrutinized win/loss record look ugly when examining Skubal’s 2021 statistics.
Skubal has allowed a whopping 13 total home runs in 49 innings of work. This is becoming a bit concerning, knowing the left-hander allowed nine home runs last season with the Detroit Tigers in just 32 innings of work.
Tarik Skubal reminds me of the pitching version of former MLB slugger Adam Dunn. When Dunn came to the plate, it seemed he’d either hit a home run or strike out. It seems Skubal will either strike a hitter out or concede a home run.
The Future Looks Bright When It Comes To The Detroit Tigers Pitching Staff
They say water always finds its level. That can be said for someone overachieving the way Akil Baddoo started the 2021 season for the Detroit Tigers. It can be applied the opposite way, in this case, the way Skubal had been scuffling to begin the campaign.
I think many of us understood Skubal was going to be better than a 7-plus ERA starter, and he seems to be settling in nicely as a middle-of-the-rotation arm for A.J. Hinch.
With Casey Mize performing exceptionally well for the Detroit Tigers in his second MLB season, first full season, seeing Skubal find the strike zone more consistently to go along with his high 90s heater, Tigers’ fans can’t help be optimistic moving forward. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Matt Manning, who owns a 9.23 ERA in 26.1 innings of work this season for the Toledo Mud Hens.
Skubal toes the rubber Saturday afternoon in Chicago as the Tigers play the third of their four-game set against the White Sox.
Detroit Tigers Odds
At DraftKings, the Detroit Tigers are +25,000 to win the World Series. The Chicago White Sox odds currently sit at +650 to win the World Series and -400 to win the American League Central Division in 2021.
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