Opening Day starter Skubal strutting dominant stuff

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Three days after the Tigers named Tarik Skubal their Opening Day starter, the left-hander provided a reminder why.

As Spring Training stages go, Monday’s 2-1 win over the Red Sox was pretty big. It was the first home broadcast of the year for Bally Sports Detroit, a sneak preview of what awaits folks in Michigan befitting the spring-like weather they’re enjoying, and the Tigers debut for new play-by-play broadcaster Jason Benetti. The lineup the Red Sox brought up from Fort Myers included a couple of relatively seasoned Major League hitters and some prospects.

Skubal was up for it. About the only heat he was feeling was the Florida sun and the humid air. He left Boston’s hitters to deal with his heat for three scoreless innings.

“Tarik is a complete pitcher, and he was very, very good today, as we would expect,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He takes the intensity of a spring start very similar to what his intensity is in a [regular-season] game start. There’s a lot to like with him today, obviously powerful stuff, great secondary stuff, kind of breezed through his innings.”

For stretches, it might as well have been a bullpen session on the back mounds at Tigertown. The Red Sox swung at 22 of Skubal’s 41 pitches. They whiffed on 14. The three balls they put in play averaged 79.3 miles per hour in exit velocity, and had an expected batting average of .170 combined.

The only hit Skubal allowed came from leadoff hitter David Hamilton, Boston’s No. 22 prospect according to MLB Pipeline. Hamilton’s 182-foot fly ball had an expected batting average of .130, but fell in between left fielder Riley Greene, third baseman Gio Urshela and shortstop Javier Báez for a bloop double.

Skubal locked in from there. His next pitch was a 98 mph high fastball that Red Sox No. 4 prospect Ceddanne Rafaela waved at for a strike, just as he did on the 85 mph changeup and 96 mph sinker that followed. Reese McGuire saw five fastballs at 97-98 mph; he took two for strikes, fouled off another, then fanned on the last at the top of the zone.

It didn’t show, Skubal said, but he was struggling.

“I was getting tired,” he said. “I was about to call my own mound visit. That was huge, to get out of that inning. I think the heat and the humidity made it a little bit harder than normal to pitch.”

Skubal retired Boston in order over the next two innings, basically playing catch with catcher Jake Rogers while trying to hit spots in the zone. He worked the top of the zone to Bobby Dalbec while messing with his timing: a 96 mph sinker for a called strike, setting up an 86 mph changeup that Dalbec swung through. That left Dalbec too slow for the 99 mph four-seamer.

“When you’re getting swings and misses on heaters down in the zone, then up in the zone, it kind of tells you that you’ve got a good fastball that day,” Skubal said. “I was able to exploit that a little bit. I think I threw fastballs a lot more than standard, between the sinker and the four-seamer.”

Skubal struck out the side in the third. He worked up and down in the zone to former Tigers Minor Leaguer Jamie Westbrook, fanning him on a 99 mph heater. He worked the edges to former White Sox infielder Romy Gonzalez, getting a call on a 96 mph sinker that might have been inside. He changed speeds on Dalton Guthrie, getting swings and misses on 96-97 mph fastballs to set up a changeup at the top of the zone that Guthrie foul-tipped into Rogers’ glove.

The Red Sox swung at five of Skubal’s seven changeups, whiffing on four.

Skubal has five scoreless innings of one-hit ball with a walk and eight strikeouts through two starts this spring. He still has some zeroes he has posted that he’s not happy with, notably on his curveball.

“Not one in the strike zone,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a strike pitch, and I’m 0-for-5 this spring, I think. So that’s not good.”

If that’s the greatest of his concerns at this point in camp, he’s doing just fine.