The Tigers’ offense finally broke loose in Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader with the Oakland A’s. Powered by another excellent start from Tarik Skubal, the offense eventually wore down Frankie Montas and won pretty easily 6-0.
Skubal was flat out dominant once again. Using his reshaped slider more and more each start, the hard-throwing lefty has made himself a lot less predictable, particularly early in counts, and it’s paying dividends. He got nine swinging strikes in this one, and consistently got ahead with quality first pitch strikes, mainly using the fastballs and slider.
Skubal refused to give in to A’s hitters in a few ABs, leading to an uncharacteristically high walk total of three for the outing.