Tigers' Skubal 'in total command', improves to 3-0 with win over Rays
Chris McCosky
St. Petersburg, Fla. — The Tigers scored a total of three runs in three games the last time they played at Tropicana Field. That was in the season-opening series last year and they were outscored 21-3 in those games.
Different year. Different team. Different story.
The Tigers scored three runs in the first two innings Monday night and, behind another dominant performance by lefty Tarik Skubal, beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-1, in the first of a three-game set.
Mark Canha, who wasn’t a part of that dismantling here last year, started the fun with a bullet home run to left field in the first inning. Parker Meadows, who was in a 0-for-10 funk with six strikeouts, launched a 427-footer to right-center in the sixth, the longest home run of his young career.
"It's nice to get Skubes a run," said Canha. "Because he's always capable of going deep in a game and doing what he did tonight. The biggest thing was the two runs in the second and we kept piling on and kept the pressure on them. We did a great job from the top of the lineup on down and making it hard on those guys."
No. 8 hitter Javier Báez, who has hit safely in five straight games that he’s had a plate appearance in, ripped two singles and scored two runs. When we say ripped: 109.6 mph and 109.5 mph. That’s two of the three hardest-hit balls this season for Báez.
No. 9 hitter Jake Rogers, who came in hitting .077, also had a pair of hits and set up RBIs for Riley Greene and Canha at the top of the order in the fifth inning.
Báez and Rogers created havoc on the bases in both the second and fifth innings, taking extra bases and forcing a couple of errors.
"Good aggressive baseball," Canha said. "We ran the heck out of the bases. Javy was all over the base paths tonight causing havoc. It's a fun brand of baseball. That's what we want our identity to be."
Báez was hitting .125 10 days ago. He's got the average up over .200 now. That on top of the stellar defense he's played at shortstop all season. He made another highlight-reel play in the fifth, fielding a tough-hop grounder by Jose Caballero and somehow, standing flat-footed, fired a hard, accurate throw to first to get the out.
"That's why he has a gold patch on his glove," Skubal said.
If Báez's bat comes around, though, it's a game-changer for the Tigers' offense.
"I see him using the entire field," manager AJ Hinch said. "And the entire field for him can be the middle. He is redirecting balls back up the middle and hitting the ball hard. He's going up with a plan and executing the plan. It's good to see. We're a different offense whenever the bottom of the order is clicking."
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Kerry Carpenter extended his hit streak and RBI streak with an opposite-field gap double in the seventh. It extended his hit streak to eight games and his RBI streak to seven. That’s the longest RBI streak by a Tiger since Miguel Cabrera knocked in runs in seven straight in August of 2013.
"It was huge getting out to an early lead," Skubal said. "It gave me even more confidence to pound the zone. Up four, it takes a grand slam to tie the game. So you can go right at guys and see how far they can hit it in certain counts."
Not very often and not very far, as it turned out. Skubal dismantled a Rays lineup of nine right-handed hitters with both power and finesse. He cruised through his six innings in 86 pitches, tying his season-high with nine strikeouts. Three singles were all the Rays could muster.
"I said after my last start that I felt good and I was pretty confident going into today and that showed," Skubal said. "I felt like I was pretty aggressive."
He was moving two-seam fastballs (96.5 mph, hitting 98.6) away and four-seam fastballs (97 mph, hitting 99.7) up and in. Off that he mixed changeups, sliders and knuckle-curves. He got a 31% whiff rate and 36% chase.
It was impressive.
"You can just tell when the other team has all those swings and misses and awkward swings, they just look uncomfortable and you know he's on," Canha said. "It became very evident, very quickly."
Skubal, 3-0 this season, has won seven straight pitcher decisions dating back to last September.
"When he dominates in the strike zone and gets them in swing mode and you give him the lead, it just gives him a leash to pitch aggressively to the zone," Hinch said. "He threw a ton of strikes, missed a ton of bats. This is a team he wanted to attack and the comfortable lead and a couple of good defensive plays behind him gave him some freedom to pitch the way he did.
"He was in total command."
With the Tigers up 6-0, Hinch decided to take Skubal out of the game, a proactive load management decision.
"We were set up with an off day Thursday and our bullpen is in a good place," Hinch said. "We have to remember it's only April. One more inning, what does that do for him? I don't know. But we want to make sure we keep being conservative with him. Maybe if it was 3-0 we make a different decision as opposed to 6-0.
"But it felt like we were in a good place. And this sets us up tomorrow with all our right-handers in the bullpen, plus (lefties) (Andrew) Chafin and (Tyler) Holton."
The Rays stopped the shutout in the eighth, a long homer to center by shortstop Jose Cabellero off reliever Shelby Miller.
The Tigers improve to 9-3 on the road, 3-1 on this two-city trip.
@cmccosky