SAN DIEGO – Detroit Tigers top prospect Kevin McGonigle thought he would feel nervous for the first pitch of his MLB debut, then settle in.
But McGonigle didn’t seem nervous.
He looked like he belonged.
On Opening Day, McGonigle pulled the first pitch he saw – an up-and-in cutter from right-hander Nick Pivetta – into right field for a two-run double in the first inning. The first hit of McGonigle’s career paved the way for an 8-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Thursday, March 26, at Petco Park.
It was a perfect start to the 2026 season.
The Tigers (1-0) took advantage of Pivetta’s command issues with a patient approach and tallied four runs in the first inning, the most for the Tigers in a season opener since April 5, 1983.
Meanwhile, left-hander Tarik Skubal – the reigning two-time American League Cy Young winner – mowed down the ready-to-swing Padres with his one-of-a-kind changeup, averaging 3.4 pitches per plate appearance across six innings of one-run ball.
The lone run against Skubal was an unearned run.
There are two more games in the opening series against the Padres (0-1), with the Tigers debut of left-hander Framber Valdez set for Friday (9:40 p.m., Detroit SportsNet).
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In Thursday’s game, McGonigle finished 4-for-5 with two doubles and two singles. He became the first Tigers player with four hits in his MLB debut since Billy Bean on April 25, 1987.
The 21-year-old started at third base and batted in the sixth spot.
Both doubles were on up-and-in fastballs from Pivetta, which is McGonigle’s favorite pitch type in his preferred area of the strike zone. He pulled a cutter into right field in the first inning, then he pulled a fastball off the right-field wall in the third inning.
It’s McGonigle Corner down there.
Before McGonigle’s first double, the Tigers capitalized on command issues from Pivetta. He walked three of the first five batters: Gleyber Torres on five pitches, Riley Greene on six pitches and Spencer Torkelson on four pitches.
The walk from Torkelson occurred with the bases loaded, resulting in the first run of the season – silencing the crowd of 45,673 fans and putting the Tigers ahead, 1-0.
From there, McGonigle drove in two runs for a 3-0 lead with his double to right field and Dillon Dingler made it 4-0 with his single into left field. In total, the Tigers sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning – and forced Pivetta to exhaust 33 pitches along the way.
In the third, the Tigers extended their lead to 6-0 with Torkelson’s single, McGonigle’s double and Parker Meadows’ double. Both Torkelson and McGonigle scored on Meadows’ flare double off Pivetta, which dropped into shallow left-center field.
Pivetta registered a 2.87 ERA in 31 starts in 2025, but the Tigers weren’t fazed to open 2026. The 33-year-old allowed six runs on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts across three innings, throwing 69 pitches.
In the fifth inning, McGonigle legged out an infield single.
He tapped a changeup from right-handed reliever Ron Marinaccio for an up-the-middle slow roller on the infield grass, then turned on the jets to beat the bare-handed throw from second baseman Xander Bogaerts. On the play, McGonigle registered a sprint speed of 30.2 feet per second.
Anything above 30 feet per second qualifies as elite.
The hustle from McGonigle led to two runs, as Dingler climbed the ladder and crushed an elevated fastball for a two-run home run off the facing of the second deck in left-center field.
That’s how the Tigers took an 8-0 lead.
Also in the fifth inning: The first Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge in Tigers history came from Javier Báez, who won the challenge to overturn the call by home-plate umpire Alfonso Márquez from a strike to a ball. He then hit a fastball up the middle with two outs.
The ABS challenge system is new to MLB in 2026.
Each team starts the game with two challenges – and challenges retained if the call is overturned.
As the Tigers delivered at the plate, Skubal jumpstarted his pursuit of a third consecutive AL Cy Young Award with dominance on the mound. The 29-year-old allowed back-to-back singles with one out in the first inning, but after those hits, he retired the next 15 batters.
He picked up where he left off after posting a 2.21 ERA in 31 starts in 2025.
The Padres didn’t put another runner on until the sixth inning, when Fernando Tatis Jr. reached safely on a throwing error by Báez. The next batter, Bogaerts, ripped Skubal’s middle-down fastball into left field for the Padres’ first run of the game, cutting the Tigers’ lead to 8-1.
Skubal finished the inning – and his first start – with back-to-back strikeouts of Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill.
His changeup danced.
It was the reason for his dominance.
Skubal generated 11 whiffs on 35 swings for a 31.4% whiff rate, including nine whiffs on 11 swings against his changeup – but only one whiff on 14 swings against his fastball.
His fastball averaged 97.2 mph.
The Padres scored their second and final run in the seventh inning, when right-handed reliever Drew Anderson – appearing his first MLB game since Oct. 3, 2021, following four seasons in Asia – surrendered a solo home run on a changeup to Ramón Laureano, making it 8-2.
The changeup is why the Tigers signed him.
But Anderson struggled in his return to the big leagues, responsible for one run on two hits and two walks without any strikeouts across 1⅓ innings – throwing 36 pitches.
The Padres had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth inning, but left-handed reliever Tyler Holton escaped the jam by inducing an inning-ending flyout against pinch-hitter Nick Castellanos.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kevin McGonigle leads Tigers in 8-2 win over Padres on Opening Day
Reporting by Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
