Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

The Best Pitcher in Baseball? He’s in Detroit, and His Name Is Tarik Skubal

102.6 mph to end the game!!!

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

Dillon Dingler wasn’t sure what he saw. A fist bump or a handshake? Coming off the field after the eighth inning, the rookie catcher scanned the dugout for a signal. He glanced toward the bullpen. Empty. No one warming up. So Dingler put the pieces together, and Detroit Tigers’ ace Tarik Skubal was going back out.

“I was like, ‘Oh, this gonna be special,’” he said. It was. But special alone doesn’t quite cover it.

Skubal needed just 94 pitches to complete the first nine-inning shutout of his career on Sunday. He struck out 13, walked no one, and allowed two harmless singles. The Tigers won, 5-0. The Guardians never stood a chance.

It was the kind of performance that doesn’t need much help to stand out, not when it comes wrapped in a stat line like this: 9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 K.

The 94-pitch shutout qualifies as a “Maddux.” The 13 strikeouts made it something else entirely. According to Sportsradar, Skubal is the only pitcher since pitch count tracking began in 1988 to record a shutout with 13 or more strikeouts in under 100 pitches. And the fastball that ended the ninth and completed the shutout, a 102.6 mph four-seamer to freeze Bo Naylor, was the fastest pitch of Skubal’s career, the fastest any Tigers pitcher has thrown in the Statcast era, and the fastest strikeout pitch by a starter in the pitch-tracking era.

103 TO FINISH IT. ARE YOU KIDDING?!@TarikSkubal pic.twitter.com/Ad787oOIex
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) May 25, 2025

It was also the fastest ninth-inning pitch by a starter since 2008, surpassing Justin Verlander’s 101.3 mph in 2009.

Nobody’s Doing It Better Than Tarik Skubal

Afterward, Tarik Skubal didn’t say much. He rarely does. “Cool,” he said when told he did it in 94 pitches. “Good,” when told only 22 of them were balls.

This is what a top-end version of Tarik Skubal looks like, a similar version that won the Triple Crown last season, leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. The one who’s been even better this year. His ERA is 2.49. His velocity is up.

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Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt didn’t hesitate. “He’s the best pitcher in baseball, and he showed it today,” he said.

Skubal didn’t need a headline-making moment to stake that claim. But Sunday gave him one anyway.

Tarik Skubal

Tigers

Mohsin Baldiwala

mlb

Mohsin Baldiwala is a Master’s student in Journalism and freelance content producer who got hooked on baseball through Seinfeld’s hapless George Costanza. The same reason why he’s a Yankees fan. He writes about sports because he believes it can offer a brief escape from the world’s chaos. Even if that means enduring the heartbreak of the 2024 World Series.