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Tarik Skubal has preached all season about setting his priority on team goals rather than his own. If he throws quality innings and gives the Tigers a chance to win, that’s more important than leading the league in the Triple Crown categories or contending for a Cy Young Award.

The big left-hander has been consistent and serious enough about it that even his teammates have taken it to heart, which made for a fun moment on Saturday, when Skubal actually wanted a memento from his season.

Skubal noticed on social media that he was seven strikeouts shy of 200 for the season, a feat accomplished by just three other left-handers in Tigers franchise history (Hal Newhouser, Mickey Lolich and Matthew Boyd).

“I got tagged on something on Instagram,” Skubal said. “That’s how I saw I was at 193, so I knew I needed seven. So that’s probably why there was a little bit more fire in the sixth inning in a situation that wasn’t big.”

When Skubal fanned Red Sox slugger Tyler O’Neill to end the sixth inning, he became the first Major Leaguer this season to reach 200 strikeouts.

Unfortunately, he didn’t tell his teammates about it.

“I didn’t even know,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “I just threw the ball around like normal. All of a sudden, he’s asking for the ball and I’m like, ‘What for?’ He said, ‘200th strikeout’ and I was like, ‘Well, I could’ve held onto that for you if I would’ve known.’”

By the time anyone had noticed Skubal wanted the ball, third baseman Ryan Kreidler had thrown it into the stands.

“I had no idea,” Kreidler said. “I launched it up there and then [Keider] Montero was [throwing up his arms],” Kreidler said. “I mean, I didn’t know. Rog didn’t know; he threw me the ball. I put half the blame on Rog and half the blame on myself. …

“But we got it back. We had to bribe one of the fans.”

Credit right fielder Matt Vierling, who took a detour on his way back into the dugout and helped in negotiations to get the ball back from the fan in return for another game ball. Credit the fan, too, for accepting the exchange, though they might not have known about the milestone either.

The ball sat in Skubal’s locker as he talked with reporters after the game.