CLEVELAND -- It was just after the hitters’ meeting prior to Game 1 when Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler got his first pregame visual of Tarik Skubal.
Normally, Dingler explained, Skubal has a bit of a laid-back, joking vibe to him early in the pregame process, then he locks in his more intense side as first pitch approaches. But this time, Dingler said, Skubal was all business from the beginning.
“As soon as he walked in the door today, I saw the intensity,” Dingler said, “and I think that directly correlated to the performance out there.”
The performance in the Tigers’ 2-1 win that gave them a 1-0 edge in this best-of-three American League Wild Card Series was truly special.
Yes, the Guardians dinked their way to another run off Skubal in another weird inning, not unlike the way they beat him in this building last week.
But that was their only run in 7 2/3 innings against Skubal, who struck out a career-high 14 batters by -- get this -- inducing whiffs on 26 of 56 swings against him.
Let’s be clear: Nothing said, written, screamed, tweeted or inscribed in the record books about this Tigers team from that fateful, dreadful final month of the regular season, in which they blew what had been an 11-game edge in the AL Central as late as Sept. 4, matters if Skubal’s going to pitch like this.
“It doesn't really matter how we got here,” Skubal said. “We got in. Everybody's in the same boat. And we're up, 1-0, in a best-of-three. So it doesn't really matter how you get here, as long as you get in.”
Dingler claimed that, from the moment Skubal walked in, he knew the Tigers were going to get one of “those” Tarik Skubal starts. Not just a good one or even a great one, but a transcendent one. The kind Skubal tossed against this same Guardians team (actually, two-thirds of the starting lineup was exactly the same) back on May 25, when he struck out 13 during a 94-pitch shutout -- the first of his career.
Sure, it’s easy to say you knew after you know, you know?
But with an ace like Skubal, the Tigers are right to feel confident that transcendence -- for him and, by extension, for them -- is obtainable.
And they are right to think they can flush their September frustrations in the new season that is the postseason.
“I think having Tarik at the beginning of the series, in any series,” said manager A.J. Hinch, “whether it's regular season or certainly the postseason, is a huge boost for us.”
Remember, as bad as things went for the Tigers with their turbulent 7-17 September, they could have been much, much worse.
Ask the Mets or Astros about that. They blew smaller leads than the Tigers did, but they're sitting at home.
Furthermore, ask the 1914 New York Giants, who blew a 15-game lead to the Boston “Miracle” Braves. Or the 1978 Red Sox, who blew a 14-game lead to Bucky Dent’s Yankees, about the historical alternatives. These Tigers broke both of their “records” but got to advance by the grace of this more forgiving fall format.
Ultimately, all that disastrous finish cost the Tigers was home-field advantage during a round in which such an advantage is dubious, anyway (home teams went a combined 10-16 in the first three years after the Wild Card Series became a full-time format in 2022).
And when the dust settled, the Tigers emerged from the regular season with Skubal more than fully rested and his stuff actually -- gulp -- getting better (Skubal maxed out at 101.2 mph in Game 1).
It was suggested to Hinch that his team came out with the “best worst outcome.”
“I don’t like the way you put it,” he said with a laugh.
But he allowed that, yes, things could have been much worse.
“Given how we were prepared to use Tarik on Sunday if we needed to get into the playoffs, we needed a win [Saturday in Boston],” he said. “We got walked off on Friday. We come back with a hard-fought win on Saturday. So it was a great outcome.”
An outcome made all the better by the way Skubal performed in Game 1. He used his slider more than usual and to great effect, getting six called strikes. He got a dozen whiffs alone on that killer changeup he carries. The only things stopping him were a chopper that went just past the pitcher’s mound and allowed the Guards to squeak in a fourth-inning run, and an ESPN camera lens smashed by a foul ball that caused an “injury delay” that same inning while a crew swept up the remains.
“I wanted them to do it again and break it [completely],” Skubal said with a smile. “If they broke the glass, do it again, and there’d be no camera there on me.”
Behind Skubal, the Tigers can similarly smash the narrative about the way their season ended. In a sport short on true aces because of both the injury rate and the way games -- especially postseason games -- are managed, Skubal is the rare pitcher who can truly command a short series all by himself.
He might have just done that here.
“I feel like who he was today,” Dingler said, “that’s what I expect from him. And he rose to the occasion.”