How the pitcher tries to lead the Detroit Tigers to the World Series

The Detroit Tigers are the top underdog in the Major League Baseball postseason. As they return home tied with the Cleveland Guardians in an American League Divisional Series, it's fair to focus on the heartiness of these Tigers – the Gritty Tigs, as they're now known.

Like many playoff teams over the years, they were involved in a trade in late July for the best player who had moved at the deadline. Unlike other teams, the Tigers were Trade This player was not acquired when they sent pitcher Jack Flaherty to the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the beginning of August, Detroit was nine games short of a playoff spot. The front office had cashed in on the season. After that, the players stubbornly caught fire, and now they have already defeated the evil Houston Astros in a wild card series. It's two wins from the ALCS.

That's all cool, but the coolest thing about the Tigers is also the least outsider thing about them. Tarik Skubal has emerged as the best pitcher in the world this year, winning the pitching triple crown by recording the most wins, most strikeouts and lowest earned run average in the American League. The big lefty is as elite as can be. But in this baseball moment, Skubal is more than that: He's a throwback to old-fashioned American baseball values ​​from a time when a workhorse ace was the most valuable thing a team could have, and that ace's job was to go deep to throw into games and put his team on his back. Skubal is the Tigers' best player and right now he means more to them than Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers or Aaron Judge to the New York Yankees.

Skubal, 27, is in his fourth full season in the big leagues. He has been a useful pitcher with clear talent in recent years. But he was also a pitcher of his time, meaning he didn't throw that much. He missed time two years in a row due to injury. He averaged about 115 innings per season in 22 starts. He threw hard, with a fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s. But until this season, Skubal averaged 85 pitches and five and a half innings per start. (Both numbers would have been exactly the same as league average that year, and were very close to average in the years Skubal pitched this way.) He was a modern creation, the kind of live arm that every team now cultivates: fetch Get just a few innings of hard throwing out of him and put him out there when the lineup switches through the order for the third time.

That was Skubal Then. But now he's the best pitcher in baseball and also an old-time hurler. On Monday, he delivered as great a performance as a pitcher can deliver all year. When the Tigers were 0-1 against Cleveland in the ALDS, Skubal picked up the slack, allowing three hits in seven shutout innings, with eight strikeouts and no walks. Everyone alive knew before the series that the Tigers' best hope was to win Skubal's starts in Game 2 and Game 5, if he could pitch regularly and hope for a one-two punch in the other three games. As always, Skubal has delivered so far.

Skubal threw 92 pitches on Monday. Only four times in 31 starts this year did he reach 100. But Skubal mastered efficiency and his regular-season start average rose to six and two-thirds innings. He threw 192 innings in the regular season, an amount now considered a ton, ranking eighth in the majors. The measure of a good, durable pitcher used to be hitting 200 innings over the course of a season. In 1974, 64 pitchers reached that threshold. In the last four years, for the first time in modern history, there have been no more than eight players in a season.

The southpaw didn't quite make it took us back to the days when stalwart pitchers went deep into games. For those days to return, there would have to be more pitchers like Skubal, and they simply aren't. But he has been dominant and his consistency therefore stands in contrast not only to the rest of the league, but especially to his own team. The Tigers have fallen in love with the use of the opener, a relief pitcher who takes a short trip to open a game. They did this because they don't have five starting players who could help them over an extended period of time. But they have one trump card: Skubal, who reliably takes the ball every fifth day and gives the team what it needs.

Evaluating a pitcher based on his team's win total at the start is a good way to reach a bad conclusion because so many other noises can change the outcome of a game. But in the Tigers' case, this exercise gives a good feel for things: They were 21-10 this season when Skubal started, 65-66 when he didn't start. Of course, their clearest path in the ALDS is to win exactly one out of three games when Skubal is not on the mound and sweep the two games he starts. There are only a few starts where he can do that not Make opposing lineups look like little children. The Guardians were unable to attack him for most of Monday, and when they did briefly threaten him, Skubal responded in the ideal way. With runners on the corners and one out in the sixth inning, he induced a routine double play to get himself out of trouble. By this point most of the starters would have already been ripped out.

One reason to support the Tigers for the rest of the postseason is that they're a funny story, a team with a passionate fan base that deserves some cheer. The Tigers lost the World Series in 2006 and made four straight playoff appearances between 2011 and 2014, all with great teams filled with great players. (Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were among them.) It would be nice to see their fans have more fun in a year when few expected it.

But even if you're cold-hearted or just hate Michigan, you might find the Tigers worth watching based on Skubal and Skubal alone. That's because there's nothing better in baseball than watching a pitcher at the peak of his powers the way the southpaw is now. He has pitched 13 shutout innings in his two postseason starts, the first being a wild-card win over the Astros. If the Tigers score enough, Skubal could make the rare playoff run that comes, oh yeah, once in a decade. Think of Madison Bumgarner for the San Francisco Giants in 2014 (a 1.03 postseason ERA over 52 innings) or Curt Schilling for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001 (1.12 over 48 before Schilling revealed to the world that he was a despicable person). Skubal is good enough to put together the kind of run that baseball fans will remember forever.

Skubal is not the entire Tigers operation. His brilliance on Monday merely set the stage for a three-run outburst in the ninth inning against Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, the sport's best reliever. Left fielder Riley Greene is an excellent young hitter, and the rest of the lineup has enough useful supporting cast to keep the team afloat. Manager AJ Hinch has pushed many ideal buttons during the Tigers' run. But it's much easier to make the right decisions when a manager can hand the ball to Skubal every five days and trust that his team has a chance, no matter what else happens. The Tigers' entire method of attack is to tread water and wait for the days when Skubal can pitch. There were worse strategies for winning a world Series.