Tarik Skubal Is Making History For The Detroit Tigers

Tarik Skubal is on a run of form for the Detroit Tigers that's been matched by only a handful of pitchers in recent baseball history. And despite playing for one of the best two teams in Major League Baseball, he's not getting nearly enough attention for it.

Skubal, over his last seven starts, has allowed just seven runs on 28 hits. Four hits allowed per start. One run allowed per start. Maybe even more impressively? He's walked just seven hitters and struck out 59. A 33% strikeout rate with just a 3.9% walk rate. That's a 0.71 WHIP with a .165 batting average allowed. 

He's turning opposing hitters into what amounts to pitchers hitting. And that's just the start of it.

READ: MLB Misses Huge Opportunity With Tarik Skubal And Paul Skenes

HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 01: Tarik Skubal #29 of the Detroit Tigers reacts recording a strikeout against the Houston Astros in the sixth inning during Game One of the Wild Card Series at Minute Maid Park on October 01, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

Tarik Skubal Making History In Detroit

Pushing back even further, over his last 15 starts, Skubal has gone 10-0 with a 1.74 ERA. His WHIP is an astonishing 0.762. He's had 128 strikeouts with just nine walks. 

On Sunday, Skubal became the first pitcher in the history of the Detroit Tigers with at least 13 strikeouts without allowing more than a single hit. The Tigers organization has been a part of Major League Baseball for 125 seasons, since 1901.

Per OptaStats, Skubal has also accomplished something no other pitcher has: back-to-back seasons with 100+ strikeouts, a 2.50 ERA or lower, and fewer than 20 walks allowed through 15 games in two consecutive seasons. Nobody else has ever done that.

His Fielding Independent Pitching, or FIP, a statistic designed to calculate an expected ERA based on baserunners allowed and strikeouts, eliminated defense, is 1.98 through the first 17 starts. If he finishes the year with a 1.98 FIP, it would be the third-lowest figure since the year 2000, behind only Corbin Burnes in 2021 and Clayton Kershaw in 2014. 

Kershaw won the MVP award in 2014. Could Skubal do the same in 2025?

Skubal's biggest hurdle to winning an MVP award is the fact that he plays in the same league as Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh. Judge is once again having a historically good offensive season, and Raleigh is somehow on pace to reach 60 home runs. 

There's a long way to go in 2025, for all three players. But Skubal is on a nearly unprecedented pace, and he's putting his Tigers in a position to make their first World Series since 2012.