'Dialed in' Skubal silences Blue Jays' bats

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The highly rated young talent on the field at TD Ballpark on Thursday didn’t disappoint. For the first three innings of the Tigers' 10-6 loss, it was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays’ impressive lineup swinging for the fences.

For the next three innings, it was Tarik Skubal’s turn.

If Skubal is going to join Guerrero, Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio among the bright new faces of baseball, however, that face might be expressionless.

“He’s got a good poker face,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who joked earlier this spring that Skubal looked like he was pitching angry. “He’s pitching very focused, which I think is good. And I think his demeanor has been exactly the same since the first phone call after I got this job, to the first time I saw him in person, to the first outing to today.

“I mean, he’s pretty dialed in when he’s got the ball in his hand and it’s his turn to pitch.”

Skubal was dialed in to face a formidable Blue Jays offense that put up four homers and 10 runs over the first three frames. Undeterred, he took the mound and held Toronto to an opposite-field single by Guerrero over the next three.

Eight of 11 hitters Skubal faced fell into two-strike counts. He finished off four of them for strikeouts -- two on what looked like the splitter he adopted over the offseason with help from Casey Mize.

“The best part of that [pitch],” Hinch said, “is that he’s got no fear in throwing it very early in counts, very early in camp. From the first outing on, he’s been committed to using it, so I know he’s worked a ton on it.”

Skubal used that pitch to send down Marcus Semien swinging out of the zone to begin his outing. After Bichette grounded out, Skubal alternated 95 mph fastballs with curveballs, the last of which froze Teoscar Hernández for a called third strike to end the fourth.

By contrast, Skubal used his fastball at 96 mph to freeze the next batter, Rowdy Tellez, to lead off the fifth after falling behind on a 2-0 count. He fell behind Guerrero, too, before the slugger sent a ground ball through the right side of the infield, but he recovered to get flyouts from Biggio and Randal Grichuk.

Skubal would have retired the Blue Jays in order in the sixth, but a Spencer Torkelson throwing error at third base extended the inning. Skubal immediately gestured to Torkelson not to worry, then retired Austin Martin on a flyout to end his outing.

“I thought he was great,” Hinch said. “He’s got some weapons to use and he’s using them. I like how he backed them off the plate a couple times.”

Fulmer struggles in second outing
Most of Toronto’s early damage came off Michael Fulmer, who entered his second spring start looking to work on fastballs up and exited with three home runs allowed.

All three long balls came on fastballs over the plate, which was not where Fulmer intended them.

“Today I kind of had a game plan of trying to work fastballs up in the zone, which is kind of a new pitch for me,” Fulmer said. “I’ve never tried to stay up there. And I feel like every time I tried to go up there, I kind of yanked it back middle-middle. I think most all fastballs today just came back over the middle of the plate.”

The results, obviously, weren’t pretty. While Fulmer averaged better than 93 mph with his two- and four-seam fastballs -- and topped out at 94.9 -- the Blue Jays had an average 98.7 mph exit velocity on the balls they put in play against him, including Hernández’s RBI double down the third-base line to chase Fulmer in the third inning.

Hill towers over Tigers’ effort
Fulmer could have actually finished with more damage if not for center fielder Derek Hill, who got a workout in the early innings. He made a diving catch in right-center field to rob a double in the first, then crashed into the center-field fence for a grab behind Ben Taylor, who relieved Fulmer in the third.

Hill also made an impact at the plate, making a stand-up triple look easy in the sixth inning and lining an RBI single as part of a five-run Tigers seventh.

“Player of the game from our side,” Hinch said. “I mean, he was really good. I don’t know what the Grapefruit League record is for putouts, but he came pretty close in a seven-inning game, for sure. And then the at-bats were really good. When he’s timed up and gets himself a good pitch to hit, he’s hit the ball pretty hard to the middle of the infield. That’s a very intriguing player when he’s contributing on both sides.”