Only a crazy person (or team) would want to face Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in an elimination game.
Skubal, who is likely to win his second Cy Young Award in less than a month, is undoubtedly the best pitcher still throwing in this year’s playoffs. He’s got 23 strikeouts in his first two starts of the postseason, spread across 14 2/3 innings. Now, the Seattle Mariners have the misfortune of facing him in a winner-take-all finale of the American League Division Series on Friday.
However, the Mariners beat him in Game 2 (technically, they beat the bullpen, but Jorge Polanco did hit two solo home runs against the ace). And they’re confident they can do so again, because they’ve somehow managed it all year.
Seattle defeated Skubal twice in the regular season, handing him the loss both times. In fact, after he fell to 0-2 with his loss to the Mariners on Apr. 2, Skubal won 10 decisions in a row before the Mariners handed him another L on July 11.
So even heading into Game 5 knowing that the toughest pitcher out there could end their season, the Mariners appear to be feeling supremely confident.
“We’ve been able to get to Skubal throughout, and we have another chance to do that on Friday,” manager Dan Wilson said, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. “Offensively, we’ve done some really good things in this series and continue to do some of those things today. So we will certainly be ready on Friday.”
The Mariners have not made it to an American League Championship Series since 2001. They’ll get the chance to advance that far at home, but the task of beating the Cy Young frontrunner four times in a row sure is a tough roadblock.
But it’s taken a tremendous effort for the Mariners to advance to this point, and they seem to be ready for whatever lies ahead.
“It’s game five. Anything can happen,” star catcher Cal Raleigh said, per Divish. “It’s a one-game series. Just go out there and give it your best go, that’s all you can do.”
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