The Detroit Tigers are talking on the Miami Marlins in a three-game weekend set after beating the New York Yankees two out of three in the Bronx during the week.
In the first game of the series, two interesting things happened to the Tigers' key players in Javy Baez and Tarik Skubal. Baez fouled a ball off his head in a scary moment and was immediately removed from the game and replaced by Trey Sweeney. Things got worse when the Tigers made a major Tarik Skubal announcement.
Tarik Skubal removed from Marlins game in fourth inning
The Tigers' ace and leading CY Young candidate, Tarik Skubal, was removed in the fourth inning of his start against the Miami Marlins. He left with athletic trainers, but it is unclear what he was laboring, just a left side of the body grab.
He had thrown just 45 pitches and given up four earned runs. The Marlins jumped on Skubal early by scoring three runs in the first two innings. We will have to wait and see what the further diagnosis is, but Tarik Skubal is no doubt the best player on the Tigers roster, and they need him to be fully healthy into October. Detroit also just announced a couple of days ago that Skubal would miss his start against the Yankees.
Skubal is 13-4 with a 2.10 ERA and 222 strikeouts in 180 innings. He also leads the American League pitchers in bWAR at 6.5. During his 2024 CY Young campaign, Skubal threw 192 innings.
Over the past three seasons, there arguably isn't a better starter in all of MLB than Skubal, and he's no doubt the best southpaw starter in the game.
The Tigers absolutely can not afford to lose Skubal in October. However, there is no further information known about the injury, and it could very well be a precautionary removal.
The weekend hasn't even started yet, and the Tigers have gotten two pieces of bad news dealt to them within an hour.