Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal Starting to Create Distance in Heated AL Cy Young Race

The Detroit Tigers are having a magical season that sees them creating incredible distance in the American League Central and establishing themselves as a real contender to push for a pennant.

While the Tigers have seen incredible performances from a ton of their key players and even some more under-the-radar guys having big years, it's no secret that the key to it all has been superstar ace Tarik Skubal.

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After winning a unanimous American League Cy Young with his historic 2024 season, the expectations on the big southpaw were as high as possible headed into the year.

Somehow, Skubal has exceeded those expectations and more, performing even better thus far than he did last year.

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On Sunday Night Baseball against the Minnesota Twins in front of a sold-out crowd and on national television, Skubal pitched one of the best outings of his career.

Throwing seven innings of one-hit ball, Skubal struck out 13 and walked just one in a shutout victory and created even more momentum to be the first repeat AL Cy Young winner in 25 years.

Make no mistake, this is an incredibly star-studded race with some competition that is going to be very difficult to fend off.

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Garrett Crochet has been incredible for the Boston Red Sox, Max Fried has dominated for the New York Yankees, Hunter Brown has come out of nowhere to have a massive year for the Houston Astros, and even two-time winner of the NL version of the award, Jacob deGrom, is having a resurgent and outstanding season.

Skubal, however, has been a notch above everyone, and a performance like that on Sunday under the brightest of spotlights goes a long way when determining who these types of awards are going to.

On the year now, the 28-year-old has a 2.15 ERA and Major League leading 0.835 WHIP with 138 strikeouts in 109 innings to go along with a laughably small number of walks at just 14.

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Most importantly, Skubal has been at his best when he's had the most eyes on him and has clearly established himself as the best pitcher on the planet in front of massive audiences.

If the left-hander can continue the kind of season he is having right now, the competition is not going to be relevant and Skubal will be the first repeat AL Cy Young since Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000.

The way he's going right now, it certainly looks like that is going to be the case.

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