Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal will make his return to the pitcher’s mound this Saturday when his team faces the Cleveland Guardians on the road, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch confirmed on Thursday.
The left-handed pitcher, who has claimed the American League Cy Young Award twice in consecutive years, has been sidelined since undergoing a procedure on May 6 to extract loose debris from his throwing elbow.
“We’re adding the best pitcher in baseball back to our mix,” Hinch said Thursday. “It’s hard to describe what that boost will be.”
The 29-year-old Skubal felt pain during his April 29 appearance against the Atlanta Braves in a contest Detroit lost 4-3. During that outing, he gave up two earned runs across seven innings but was not credited with the loss or victory.
“I need to keep the game of baseball as the game of baseball, especially not trying to make up for the last five weeks I’ve been gone,” Skubal said Tuesday, via the Detroit Free Press. “I can’t do that with one pitch or one outing. That’ll be the challenge — to keep the game as the game.”
Through seven appearances this season, Skubal holds a 3-2 record with a 2.70 earned run average. He has recorded 45 strikeouts while issuing just six walks across 43 1/3 innings pitched.
He delivered quality performances in five of those seven outings.
Since joining Detroit in 2020, Skubal has compiled a 57-39 win-loss record with a 3.06 ERA over seven seasons, appearing in 144 games with 141 starts. During that span, he has fanned 934 hitters while walking 178 across 810 innings of work.
Detroit concluded the previous campaign at 87-75, finishing one game behind the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central division race. The Tigers knocked out Cleveland in the wild-card playoffs before falling to the Seattle Mariners in the AL Division Series.
Currently, Detroit sits in fourth place within the Central division with a 28-40 record this season.
