Detroit Tigers Announce Major Tarik Skubal News After First Career Shutout

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Cole Sullivan | Last updated May 26, 2025 1:35 PM ET

After dropping the first three games of their series against the Cleveland Guardians, the Detroit Tigers turned to ace Tarik Skubal on Sunday—and he made sure a sweep wasn’t in the cards.

Skubal delivered one of the most dominant pitching performances in recent MLB memory, tossing a complete-game shutout while allowing just two hits. He threw only 94 pitches—72 of them for strikes—and recorded 13 strikeouts with zero walks.

The performance wasn’t just impressive—it was historic.

According to Tigers PR, Skubal’s final pitch of the game, clocked at nearly 103 mph, marked the first time in the Statcast Era that a starting pitcher had thrown a 102+ mph pitch after the sixth inning. He became the first MLB starter to do so, and it came on the final pitch of the ninth inning.

In the Statcast Era, no MLB starter had thrown a pitch at 102+ MPH after the 6th inning of a game.

That changed today, with Skubal doing it to end the game in the 9th.
— Tigers PR (@DetroitTigersPR) May 25, 2025

Additionally, Skubal became the first pitcher in Tigers franchise history to throw a complete game with zero walks, no more than two hits, and 13 or more strikeouts. The last MLB pitcher to accomplish that feat was Jacob deGrom in April 2021.

Skubal has picked up right where he left off after a breakout 2024 season in which he earned AL Cy Young honors, made his first All-Star appearance, and claimed the ERA title.

Following Sunday’s masterpiece, he now holds a 5–2 record with a 2.49 ERA, 92 strikeouts, a 2.2 WAR, and a 0.845 WHIP through 11 starts and 68.2 innings.

Following the game, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch made it clear just how impressed he was with Skubal’s remarkable outing.

“It’s hard to top what he did—what an incredible performance when the team needed it most,” Hinch said. “We obviously haven’t played well, and we’re in a divisional matchup… You talk about a guy putting a team on his back. Just an incredible performance by an incredible pitcher.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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