If Wednesday turns out to be the last game Tarik Skubal ever pitches for the Detroit Tigers, he at least gave the fans one positive memory by recording his 1,000th career strikeout early in the team’s 10-9 extra-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
It also may have been a devastating representation of his entire career with the team: a big missed opportunity with individual brilliance that ultimately ends in bitter disappointment.
Tigers blow 7-0 lead in what could have been Tarik Skubal’s final start with team
Skubal cruised through the first 6.2 innings on Wednesday afternoon, holding a 7-0 lead before giving up an RBI single to Leody Taveras.
Even with a run across, and runners on base, Skubal was just one out away from getting out of the inning and sending the Tigers into the eighth inning with a six-run lead.
Instead of getting the chance to finish that off, the Tigers removed Skubal, turned the game over to their bullpen and watched in disbelief as the Orioles pushed four more runs across the plate in the seventh inning, and then two more in the eighth inning to tie the game, ultimately sending the game to the extra innings.
After a wild 11th inning that saw both teams score a pair of runs, Baltimore was able to get one more run across in the 12th and hold on for the win.
And just like that, the Skubal era may have ended.
It’s hard to imagine that it won’t at this point.
Not only is he a free agent after this season, but with Wednesday’s loss the Tigers are just 51-58 and four games out of a wild-card spot in the American League.
Skubal has said all of the right things in the short-term about wanting to stay in Detroit and win a World Series there, but the Tigers have to be practical about this. There is almost no chance they are going to be able to re-sign him in the current economic landscape of the sport. They might not want to gamble on that changing. And now their playoff hopes seem to be slipping away.
If Wednesday is the end for him in Detroit, it’s hard to imagine a more frustrating way out. If nothing else, a brilliant seven-inning start in a game the Tigers won would have at least been some sort of a proper send-off. There would have at least been a bittersweet feel to it, where fans acknowledge how much the entire situation stinks, but at least you saw him at close to his best and gave him a win.
Instead, they get that.
Skubal has been one of the best pitchers in baseball for several years now, but the Tigers have only been able to get him into the playoffs two times, and never beyond the ALDS.
Even in what could have been his final game with the team, there was still a massive letdown.
