Tarik Skubal lost all of four games in 2024 as he dominated batters with a Triple Crown season that captured him the American League Cy Young award. The hard-throwing southpaw began 2025 on a different path, losing his first two starts during the Detroit Tigers' season-opening road trip. But it's marathon and not a sprint and Skubal has looked like his world-beating self over his past two starts—racking up 13 shutout innings and 15 strikeouts without issuing a single walk.
On Monday night against the Milwaukee Brewers, Skubal twirled seven shutout innings and collected nine strikeouts in a 9-1 victory. Yet the lopsided score did little to dampen his enthusiasm for the big moment as he proved after striking out Rhys Hoskins to escape a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning and preserve his shutout.
