At this point in the Major League Baseball season, no one dares to argue who the best pitcher in the circuit is. Although Paul Skenes, Zack Wheeler, Garrett Crochet or Christopher Sanchez have had a great year, none has been as dominant as Tarik Skubal, ace of the Detroit Tigers and undisputed king from the MLB mound.
The left-hander shone again on Tuesday with seven scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts against Houston. The Astros suffered the brunt of Skubal’s devastating fastball and sinker, who also showed the devilish effectiveness of his changeup, with which he got 60% whiff rate and 85% strikes.
This work was not enough for him to win in his individual box, because the game was defined in ten innings after a long duel of zeros between the pitchers of both teams. Only in the tenth, without hitting, the Tigers won thanks to a walk with the bases loaded to Gleyber Torres.
“It was a great game from start to finish,” said Skubal, only the second pitcher of the season to go without a decision after completing seven scoreless innings, at least a dozen strikeouts and three hits or less. Before, it had only happened to Garrett Crochet with the Red Sox.
With his work on Tuesday (his ninth with 10 or more strikeouts in 2025), Skubal became the first pitcher with 200 strikeouts in the current season.
With just over a month of the campaign to go, the left-hander is on track to break his record of 228 strikeouts in a season, set last year when he won the Cy Young Award.
This campaign is also a serious contender for the award, as he leads the Majors in WHIP (0.87) and is third in opponent average (.197) and ERA (2.32). He also boasts a spectacular average of 1.41 walks per nine innings, the lowest in the majors, with a rate of eight strikeouts per walk. His closest pursuer in this last department is Sonny Gray, with 6.46.
If he maintains this line, it will be very difficult to argue with him for the crown of the best pitcher in MLB at present and, therefore, dethrone him from the race for the Cy Young, an award that no American League pitcher has won in consecutive seasons during the present century.
The last to achieve such a feat was Pedro Martinez, who won the award in 1999 and 2000 with Boston. In general, there are only a handful of players who have won consecutive Cy Young Awards in the younger Major League circuit:
- * Roger Clemens (86-87 with Boston, 97-98 with Toronto)
- * Jim Palmer (1975-76 with Baltimore)
- * Denny McLain (1968-69 with Detroit)
Beyond individual distinctions, the most important thing for Skubal is to keep Detroit as the best team in the American League in 2025 and try to advance in the postseason.
Read the full article here
