Skubal's final Aug. start marred by 'misfires'

DETROIT -- Tarik Skubal’s hardest fastball Tuesday night was a first-inning heater at 96.9 mph, according to Statcast. The A’s averaged a 97.0 mph exit velocity off the Tigers left-hander.

It was that kind of night.

“I just didn’t feel synced up after the first inning,” Skubal said.

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Even as Skubal fanned six batters over five innings to set a Tigers record for strikeouts by a pitcher in his rookie season, Oakland crushed his pitches with regularity, including two-run home runs by Matt Chapman and Mark Canha, in a 9-3 Detroit defeat.

It isn’t an unexpected hiccup for a rookie hurler heading into the final month of his first full season in the Majors. But with the way he had rolled through August until the final night of the month, it felt rare.

Skubal had enjoyed a borderline dominant August, having allowed four runs on 19 hits over 22 2/3 innings with a 27-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Every run off him had scored on a homer, including back-to-back solo shots in his last start at St. Louis before he rolled to 10 strikeouts over five innings.

Tuesday seemed headed down that same path, or at least one where the A’s would be struggling to make contact. Skubal struck out four of Oakland’s first eight batters, all swinging. He had allowed three baserunners, two on walks, and had stranded all of them.

Within that early work were signs of potential trouble. Though Skubal retired left-handed slugger Matt Olson in the first inning, his grounder to short had a 110.3 mph exit velocity off Skubal’s 95 mph fastball. Another groundout from Elvis Andrus was the only ball in play in the second, but it came on Skubal’s 29th and final pitch of an inning that featured two strikeouts, back-to-back walks and a battle with himself.

“The second inning, my legs felt really light underneath me for some reason,” Skubal said. “I don’t really know why, but I just didn’t really feel synced up after that and just wasn’t commanding my fastball very well to my arm side or to my glove side. A lot of misfires there.”

Chapman’s strikeout on a high slider to lead off that inning was Skubal’s 147th strikeout of the season, breaking teammate Spencer Turnbull’s single-season record for a Tigers rookie. It was the last Skubal pitch Chapman missed.

The A’s hit just .240 with a .719 OPS this season against lefties, both fourth-worst in the American League. But they’re just outside the top 10 of MLB teams in exit velocities. As Skubal began to labor, that power caught up.

“They don’t chase a ton, and they’re coming out of a little bit of a funk that they’ve been in,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who saw plenty of the A’s offense from the other side of the division during his Houston years. “[Skubal] really hadn’t walked people, hadn’t sprayed the ball around the zone or around the plate much recently. And today they made him work pretty hard.”

Once Skubal’s fastball wandered over the plate in the third inning, not even the spacious Comerica Park outfield could help him. Josh Harrison hit a 403-foot flyout to the warning track in center field before Starling Marte and Olson hit back-to-back doubles. Chapman hit a first-pitch fastball 423 feet to left with a 108.4 mph exit velocity. Mark Canha’s inning-ending groundout had a 107.7 mph exit velo.

“I really wasn’t commanding my fastball that well,” Skubal said. “So if you’re not commanding it and you’re missing middle, you just have to hope that something else works. I don’t think I threw a curveball near the strike zone today. I mean, it was just overall a pretty frustrating outing. The way I competed, I’m just not proud of that.”

Skubal’s third trip through the middle of the A’s lineup in the fifth inning had similar results. Back-to-back singles from Marte and Olson set up a Yan Gomes sacrifice fly. Chapman just missed another home run, sending center fielder Derek Hill crashing into the wall on a 424-foot out. Canha’s opposite-field poke wasn’t hit nearly as hard, but he found the right spot in the right-field corner to clear the fence.

Five of the seven hits off Skubal went for extra bases. Seven of the 16 balls in play against him topped 100 mph in exit velocity, five off fastballs.

“That’s a tough recipe when you’re facing a team that can conduct at-bats the way they did tonight,” Hinch said.