SEATTLE — Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal delivered one of the best performances in a winner-take-all MLB playoff game.
The reigning AL Cy Young winner allowed one run in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, Oct. 10, while racking up 13 strikeouts across six innings. He also set a postseason record with seven strikeouts in a row.
The Tigers still lost, 3-2.
The loss eliminated the Tigers from the playoffs.
“Anytime you end the season on a loss, you’re not going to be happy or satisfied,” said Skubal, who is expected to repeat as the AL Cy Young winner. “The ALDS is the standard for this club, and that’s awesome. Early in my career, we couldn’t say the same thing. To say that this is almost expected, I think it is really cool, but it’s tough when you end the season on a loss.”
The Tigers have set a standard of reaching the ALDS, but they’ve fallen short in Game 5 of that round in back-to-back seasons. Looking ahead, how can the Skubal-led Tigers set a new standard of advancing to the next round, the ALCS?
The ace answered that question.
“I think the World Series should be the standard, right?” Skubal said after Friday’s game, in which he threw 99 pitches. “I think that’s why you play the game — to compete and win a World Series every year. I don’t think the ALCS should be the standard. I don’t really know if the ALDS should be the standard. The standard should be the World Series.”
In 2025, Skubal made 34 starts between the regular season and the postseason. The 28-year-old is set to become a free agent after the 2026 season.
“We’re in 2025 right now,” owner Christopher Ilitch said Oct. 2 after the Tigers advanced to the ALDS, when asked if he is prioritizing a Skubal contract extension. “We’re just going to focus on the playoffs and really just focus on the game in front of us.”
Skubal is the Tigers’ best player.
He logged a 2.21 ERA with 33 walks and 241 strikeouts across 195⅓ innings in 31 starts during the regular season, then posted a 1.74 ERA with four walks and 36 strikeouts across 20⅔ innings in three starts during the postseason.
“I think this idea of a window is an illusion,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said July 31 after the trade deadline, when asked if there’s a window to win the World Series with Skubal. “I’m not looking at this as a window. It doesn’t mean that I’m shorting the present for the future by any means, but this whole idea of a window is not really filtering into my head because it’s my job to get to the postseason every single year if I can.”
Skubal won’t talk to the Tigers about his future or the direction of the organization.
“My job is to play,” said Skubal, who registered a 2.39 ERA in 77 starts from 2023-25. “That’s not my job — to do anything other than play. Those questions should be asked toward the front office and the people that make those decisions, but my job is to go out there and play.”
Even Skubal couldn’t carry the Tigers to the ALCS by himself.
He dominated in Game 5 of the ALDS, but the heart of the Tigers’ lineup — Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Colt Keith — finished 0-for-23 with 10 strikeouts in the showdown with the Mariners that lasted 15 innings.
“It’s going to be up to a lot of the guys in this clubhouse,” Skubal said, hinting at the requirements to establish World Series standards. “We’re young, coming back again. It’s going to be up to our offseason and how we attack it. For me, personally, get back in the gym, get my body underneath me and get ready to go again.”
As of now, the Tigers’ standard is getting to the postseason.
Skubal wants that to change.
“I think the World Series should be the standard from everyone in this organization,” Skubal said.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers ace Tarik Skubal: ‘World Series should be standard from everyone in organization’
Reporting by Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
