Tarik Skubal Dominates Guardians With Career-High 14 Strikeouts in AL Wild Card Opener

Unfortunately for the Cleveland Guardians, they faced Tarik Skubal, who had his best stuff today. Fortunately, he (probably) can’t pitch the rest of this series.

In a back-and-forth pitchers' duel in game one, Cleveland lost to the Detroit Tigers at their own game. Cleveland’s two massive errors by Jonathan Rodriguez and Jhonkensey Noel were the difference makers in this one, as they led to two unearned runs for Gavin Williams.

It’s pretty disappointing as this was truly a coming-out party for Williams. In the second half of the season, he took over the reins as the rightful number one pitcher in the Guardians' rotation, and he proved that today, going 6 innings, giving up 0 earned runs, and striking out 8 batters.

He had struggled in his prior postseason performances, so it was great to see him thrive in the most significant moment of the season in his breakout year. However, nobody’s going to remember it as the Guardians lost, and Tarik Skubal did Tarik Skubal things, going 7.2 innings, striking out a career-high 14 batters, and only allowing 1 run.

For the second year in a row, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt is trying to be the smartest guy in the room. Cleveland led the league in platoon matchups with opposing pitching, and I just don’t think that will work in the postseason—especially when your platoons are Noel and Rodriguez.

Those two obviously have some pop, but they can’t defend, and they’re putting up completely uncompetitive at-bats. George Valera, CJ Kayfus, and even Daniel Schneeman have earned the right to be in the lineup in the biggest moments of the year. Even if they aren’t the most analytically sound matchups with a hard-throwing lefty like Skubal on the mound, I’d rather go down knowing we had the best hitters available getting these rare plate appearances.

Speaking of getting your best players more plate appearances, what’s the point of calling up Chase DeLauter if you’re not going to get him into this game? Oh, great, you brought up this top-hitting prospect just to leave him on the bench with a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth inning in a game you’re down one run. If he’s going to just rot on the bench, give me another arm for the bullpen, just in case you need it.

Play your best nine guys in game two, and give Tanner Bibee some run support. This series isn’t over, but it’s time to manage this game like your season is on the line—because it is.