Skubal's 'good week' has ace ready to go after injury scare

DETROIT -- Listen closely and you might still hear the remnants of those sighs of relief Tigers fans let out when Tarik Skubal’s injury scare turned out to be fleeting.

For a moment last Wednesday night in Atlanta, as Skubal shook his left arm, grabbed his forearm and summoned catcher Dillon Dingler to the mound, Tigers fans had to wonder if their worst fears were coming true. Detroit has weathered injuries all season, but aside from an early exit last September in Miami, they’ve seen Skubal take the ball every turn since he returned from flexor tendon surgery in the summer of 2023.

Just as soon as the gravity of Skubal’s situation was settling in, it was over. And after Skubal struck out the side in his seventh and final inning Wednesday, he was no worse for the ordeal.

Nothing has changed since. Skubal will make his first start since the scare Monday against the Red Sox at Comerica Park, and he said his between-starts work has progressed as normal, from his usual bullpen session last Friday to his daily workout routine.

“It was a good week of work,” Skubal said, “for sure.”

He can’t guarantee that such a scare won’t happen again, but he isn’t outwardly worried about it. About the only challenge he faces in the wake of it is how to describe what happened.

“I don’t really know. Cramp is probably the wrong word,” Skubal said. “We’ve heard the word zinger, I guess, but it wasn’t really like a nervy thing. I don’t know.”

As he prepares for Monday’s series opener against a Red Sox team he just faced a couple weeks ago, Skubal said his focus is on the opposing hitters, not on his arm. Still, situations like these come with the territory of a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner pitching in a contract year with free agency looming. Anything that happens healthwise is going to be magnified, whether it’s a minor blip or a serious concern. And while Skubal said he wasn’t worried going into his bullpen session over the weekend, he understood why others would be.

“I think a lot of people here were [curious going into the bullpen session], but I don’t think I was one of them,” Skubal said. “I kind of felt like I would be all right coming out of it with just Day 1 soreness.”

Skubal prepares for a Red Sox lineup he dominated on April 18 at Fenway Park, where he tossed six innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts. He fanned slugger Willson Contreras and veteran Trevor Story three times each, including twice apiece on changeups. The only extra-base hit Skubal allowed was a Ceddanne Rafaela double off the Green Monster that set up Boston’s lone run.

Plenty has changed around the Red Sox, including a new manager in Chad Tracy and a revamped coaching staff that includes new hitting coaches. But Skubal said that won’t impact his game plan.

“Sure, there’s some familiarity there, and that’s what I’ll leave it as,” Skubal said. “And a lot of their changes, I don’t know how much of it was to the group of guys as it was to the coaching staff. I’m competing against Contreras, Story, Rafaela, [Connor] Wong, Roman Anthony. I’m not really ever trying to compete with the coaching staff or [the manager]. I have a lot of respect for those guys, but I’m competing in the moment in the box, with the guy that’s in the box.”

Skubal’s turn will be a godsend for a pitching staff that has been stretched over the past several days between injuries and ineffectiveness, including a bullpen game Sunday night against Texas in place of injured Casey Mize. With Skubal and fellow workhorse Framber Valdez starting the first two games of this series, then an off-day on Thursday, Detroit’s relief corps should be able to get a break.

“I said it in the spring: It takes more than five starters and eight relievers, 13 position players,” Skubal said. “Every team goes through it. That’s the messaging that was going on in spring. I think that’s where depth matters in this organization.”