Skubal takes no-no into 6th, flexes ace form as Tigers sweep

DETROIT -- Tarik Skubal’s teammates thought this might be the day.

“The biggest thing for me, my mindset seeing [Skubal’s no-hit bid] go into the fifth inning was I have to make every play for him. I have to be behind him,” rookie shortstop Kevin McGonigle said. “And everyone else is thinking the same thing, having his back.”

That thought was behind the extra zip on McGonigle’s throws across the infield. It was the wind behind Spencer Torkelson as he sprinted from behind first base toward the cutout in foul territory down the right-field line at Comerica Park, trying to chase down Austin Slater’s foul ball.

Every no-hitter has The Play, and they wanted it.

“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” Torkelson said. “Before every pitch, you're telling yourself, 'I'm getting to everything. I don't care. I'll dive for this ball.'”

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To hear Skubal talk after Sunday’s 8-2 victory over the Marlins, it sounded like a different game.

“My stuff wasn't good today,” he said. “My changeup needs to be better, and it will be better. That's something that needs to get better. But my heater was good today in terms of execution. My spin was good enough. But my changeup needed to be better.

“But those types of things that happen in baseball. It's not always when you have your best stuff. If that was the case, it would be easy to predict our game. It's just not like that.”

Few would’ve predicted such a one-sided, high-scoring affair out of one of the most anticipated pitching matchups since Opening Day. While the Tigers made Sandy Alcantara look mortal for the first time this season, Skubal threatened to take the next step in his progression toward pitching immortality, holding the Marlins hitless for 5 2/3 innings before a familiar face broke it up.

It wasn’t the day for Skubal, but with his 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball, it was more than enough to complete a three-game series sweep that put the Tigers’ bad days in Minnesota earlier this week behind them.

“There can't be a louder thing to take away from this series, how we responded to not playing good baseball in Minnesota,” Skubal said. “We just flipped the page to get back home and swept a good Marlins team. That team, they’re good. It was good to not only win a series, but sweep.”

Skubal navigated a Marlins lineup perfectly his first time through, striking out four and allowing just two balls out of the infield. His first baserunner of the day was Austin Slater, who was his Spring Training teammate as a non-roster invite to Tigers camp before he opted out and signed with Miami. Slater, who worked a 3-0 count before hitting a comebacker to lead off the game, drew a four-pitch walk to lead off the fourth inning but was erased on a double play.

Skubal faced the minimum 14 batters until he hit Connor Norby with two outs in the fifth. Skubal ended the inning with a Xavier Edwards groundout to take his no-hit bid through five, but the baserunner ensured that Slater -- a veteran lefty nemesis and the most likely Marlin to break up the no-hitter -- would bat in the sixth.

After Skubal struck out Deyvison De Los Santos and retired Javier Sanoja, up came Slater again. This time, Skubal worked to get ahead in the count, starting him off with a 98 mph sinker that he fouled off. Torkelson covered 112 feet to try to run it down, according to Statcast, but his sliding attempt fell just short.

It would’ve been The Play had Skubal completed the no-no.

“You want to be that play,” Torkelson said. “You want to be ready for that play. It was close.”

Skubal went with the heat again on the next pitch, this time a 98 mph four-seamer inside. Slater got enough of it for a blooper into shallow center field, leaving neither second baseman Gleyber Torres nor center fielder Javier Báez with a play.

“He's a good dude,” Skubal said. “Obviously, it's a 70 mph [actually 65.9 mph, per Statcast] hit, a bleeder over the middle. That's just part of the game.”

A more solidly struck seventh-inning triple from Detroit-area native Jakob Marsee made the what-if moot and helped to break up the shutout on an Otto Lopez sacrifice fly. Skubal left two batters later, after fanning Norby for his seventh strikeout of the game.

Skubal worked with a lead from the second inning on. Detroit’s lineup saddled Alcantara with more than twice as many runs (seven) as he had allowed all season (three; two earned). Dillon Dingler’s three-run homer completed a two-out rally in the first inning and gave Skubal more run support than he received in his previous two starts combined.