Skubal's stuff silences Pirates as ace authors another gem

DETROIT -- The sudden rain shower following Tarik Skubal's first pitch Wednesday afternoon felt like a bad omen after Tuesday’s rainout. Turns out the more fitting sign was the flash of lightning and loud rumble of thunder as Pirates rookie sensation Jared Jones threw his first pitch of the day.

While the Tigers’ offense picked up where it left off Sunday, saddling Jones with a career-high seven runs (five earned) and career-lows of 4 1/3 innings and two strikeouts, Skubal struck out eight batters over seven scoreless innings, sending the Tigers to an 8-0 win to open the doubleheader at Comerica Park.

Skubal (6-1), pitching for the first time since his 14-game unbeaten streak ended last week in Kansas City, put up a fitting start to a new streak by frustrating Pittsburgh’s right-handed hitters all afternoon with a combination of high-90s fastballs and changeups, comprising 69 of his 93 pitches and 11 of his 15 swinging strikes.

“His changeup was definitely [better than] anything we saw on video,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I mean, the depth that he had to it, if that’s not the best one he’s had all year, then I would be hard-pressed to see when he had a better one.”

Last week aside, Skubal has been dominant or close to it all season. His 2.01 ERA is among the five lowest in the Majors among qualified starters, though not as low as teammate Reese Olson’s 1.92. Skubal’s 0.82 WHIP is tied for the MLB lead with Ranger Suárez. What arguably separated Wednesday’s dominance is that he seemingly got stronger as the outing went along.

“That may have been the best pitching performance we’ve seen so far this year,” Shelton said. “I think he was 22-for-24 first-pitch strikes [with] command of everything on all parts of the plate. He really threw the ball well.”

Skubal fanned six of the Pirates’ first 10 batters before settling in to retire the final 10 Bucs batters in order. He needed just 11 pitches to retire the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings. His final strikeout was a 98 mile-per-hour fastball on his 90th pitch. Nick Gonzales, who fanned on Skubal’s 97 mph fastball in his first at-bat, couldn’t catch up again.

“I thought early I just had a lot of uncompetitive pitches with two strikes,” Skubal said, “so I just started going right at guys. My first-pitch strike percentage was really high, and they started swinging and putting the ball in play once they kind of realized that I was going to be in the zone all day.”

Compared to Kansas City, where Skubal faced a flurry of three-ball counts and suffered a 31-pitch second inning against a pesky Royals offense, Skubal had 22 first-pitch strikes and just five three-ball counts out of 25 batters Wednesday.

“Just letting my stuff play in the zone,” Skubal said. “I can beat guys in the zone. I don’t need to expand. That’s probably a little bit more of a mental switch [from Kansas City] than it was trying to refine anything or work on a pitch.”

Jones had allowed one first-inning tally all season, but Wenceel Pérez’s leadoff triple set the tone for a three-run opening frame that matched Jones’ season-high for runs allowed in a game. Detroit opened with three consecutive base hits, all with exit velocities of 103 miles per hour or harder, including Matt Vierling’s single to drive home Pérez.

“I feel like if we can get [Skubal] a lead, it just elevates his confidence,” Vierling said. “Everything just gets better. So getting that 3-0 lead was huge for us.”

Jones settled down to retire 11 of 12 batters from the first inning into the fifth, but the top of the Tigers’ order haunted him once more to knock him out of the game. Vierling crushed a hanging slider for a three-run home run, his third homer in two games, before Riley Greene’s double chased Jones from the outing.

Vierling’s homer was the 11th allowed by Jones this season, one of the rookie right-hander’s few weak points. Jones had tempered the damage by allowing little traffic in front of his homers, but Vierling’s drive was just the third multi-run homer off Jones, and the first three-run tally.

Jones induced just four swinging strikes, all on sliders. His changeup did little to draw Detroit batters off his fastball-slider arsenal.