Tigers ace and one of the best starting pitchers in all of baseball, left-hander Tarik Skubal, looked more like his original self in last night’s outing against the Yankees, which resulted in a 9-3 win. Skubal pitched six innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out nine batters. At one point, Skubal retired ten Yankees batters in a row. He allowed just one hit, which was a Ben Rice home run in the bottom of the first inning after the Tigers took a 4-0 lead early.
Skubal ironically faced the Yankees in his last start, except in Detroit, and it was a mixed result: he pitched six innings, struck out nine, but gave up four runs on two home runs from first baseman/DH Paul Goldschmidt and a big go-ahead two-run home run by outfielder Jasson Dominguez. Skubal hasn’t looked totally like himself lately since returning from an invasive procedure to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow, but he did look a lot like himself last night.
Tigers Need This Version Of Skubal Moving Forward
Last night’s performance is the kind the Tigers will need to continue for Skubal moving forward if they want any chance of remaining in contention before this year’s MLB trade deadline. The Tigers have won three of their last five games and currently hold a record of 37-49 in 4th place within the AL Central and nine games back of first place. However, the Tigers are 6.5 games back currently from an American League Wild Card Spot.
The Tigers’ offense did a lot of good things last night. They scored four runs early off the perennial AL CY Young favorite and Yankees ace Cam Schlittler. Riley Greene had a big night, hitting two home runs, and Kerry Carpenter, along with Spencer Torkelson, also hit home runs.
The Tigers will finish off this three-game set in New York with one more game this afternoon, 1:35 PM E.T. first pitch, before heading down to Texas to face the Rangers.
Tigers Looking To Keep Momentum Going
The Tigers will look to keep the momentum going and complete the sweep as they face Troy Melton, a 25-year-old breakout starting pitcher for the Tigers who’s 4-1 with a 2.39 ERA in 37.2 innings pitched in 2026. The Tigers, on the other hand, will face Yankees right-hander Will Warren, who’s struggled of late but has posted a 7-3 record with a 3.75 ERA in 84 innings pitched this season. The Yankees will try to snap a six-game losing streak at this point, but as for the Tigers, they’ll look to keep on winning, and they have to, if they want to avoid being sellers this summer.
Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal Looked Like His Original Self Against Yankees