The Seattle Mariners will have their hands full in Game 1 of the ALDS.
Seattle gladly enjoyed its bye while its competitor had to compete in the Wild Card round.
But now the Mariners know who they'll be facing, and it's a tough task: Tarik Skubal.
The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians by winning Games 1 and 3 of their series, and so their ace will pitch in Seattle on Saturday.
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Skubal is a cool story for this matchup in general, having attended Seattle University as an unheralded prospect before developing into a Cy Young winner.
But now that he's opposing Seattle, it's not as fun for the Mariners.
He struck out a career-high 14 batters in his Game 1 win over the Guardians, a 2-1 victory. Skubal was hitting 101 miles per hour on his fastball in the seventh inning of his outing.
Seattle likely has the deeper pitching rotation overall, but Skubal will have the matchup edge against anyone he goes up against.
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The Mariners will need their strong right-handed bats, like Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena and Eugnio Suarez (as well as Cal Raleigh switch-hitting) to set a tone against Skubal.
Even against a conceptually lesser Tigers team, the Mariners don't want to fall behind by a game in the series.
Somehow, Seattle will have to solve Skubal (who they did solve better than most during the regular season). If the Mariners can do that, it'll be a big chance to extend their season well into October.
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