Pirates tasked with solving stingy Tigers ace Tarik Skubal

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has been nearly unbeatable at home since the start of last season. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the unenviable task of facing the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on Wednesday.

Skubal (7-2, 1.99 ERA) presents a monumental challenge wherever he pitches, but he is especially stingy at Detroit’s Comerica Park. This season, he has a 5-0 record and 1.72 ERA in seven home starts. He posted a 10-1 mark and a 1.99 ERA in 16 starts at his home park in 2024.

Skubal dropped his first two starts this season but has a 7-0 record and a 1.47 ERA in his past 12 outings. He has allowed just one run total in his past four starts, spanning 30 2/3 innings, while recording 32 strikeouts and two walks. Both free passes were issued in his latest outing, when he held the Baltimore Orioles scoreless for seven innings on Thursday.

“He’s one of the best in the league,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He will counter whatever they’re doing and he stays in the fight. It will be punchouts on some days and other days it’s having to mix his pitches and throw in a few breaking balls, which is what he did (at Baltimore). It was good to see.”

Skubal felt he got better as the game progressed, even though he only permitted three hits and two walks overall.

“Early I didn’t think the stuff was coming out of my hand (well) and I was kind of fighting myself,” he said. “As the game wore on, I felt like I got better, and that’s what I’m most proud of. You look back at an outing and sometimes you are on from pitch one and sometimes it takes a little bit.”

Skubal is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in four career outings (three starts) against the Pirates.

He will be opposed by left-hander Andrew Heaney (3-5, 3.33), who has been victimized by a lack of run support. The Pirates have scored three or fewer runs in 11 of his 14 starts.

Heaney has displayed pinpoint control in his three June outings — he hasn’t issued a walk. In his most recent start, Heaney gave up three runs in six innings to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a two-run homer off him in the fourth inning, and Pittsburgh went on to lose 3-2.

“Looking back on it, not a great sequence,” Heaney said. “(Crow-Armstrong) did that to me in Pittsburgh, too. Not terribly thrilled about that selection and execution there, and obviously it ends up kind of costing us the game. Probably some better spots we could have gone to.”

Heaney is 1-2 with a 9.19 ERA in three career starts against the Tigers.

Detroit used the long ball to take the opener of the three-game series on Tuesday. Javier Baez hit a pair of solo home runs while Wenceel Perez and Riley Greene contributed two-run shots in the Tigers’ 7-3 victory.

Pittsburgh likely will be without two-time All-Star outfielder Bryan Reynolds the rest of the series. Reynolds left the series opener in the second inning for the birth of his third child.

–Field Level Media