In a marquee pitching matchup Saturday night in the City of Brotherly Love, it was Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers who emerged on top. Skubal outdueled Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler to help Detroit come away with a 7-5 victory at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Skubal pitched like a man on a mission until dropping in form in the seventh inning. He punched out six of the first seven batters he faced before allowing three earned runs in the seventh inning, leading to his exit from the mound. In any case, Skubal had another start to be proud of, as he finished his tenure on the hill against Philadelphia with three earned runs on five hits and zero free passes issued while racking up a total of 10 strikeouts across 98 pitches.
Skubal also appears to like the air in enemy territories of late. In fact, he just joined Los Angeles Dodgers star and future Baseball Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw for a rare pitching feat in the big leagues, according to OptaSTATS.
“Only one other MLB pitcher in the modern era has had 10+ strikeouts & no walks in 3 consecutive road starts: Clayton Kershaw (2016),” OptaSTATS shared in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
In his last road start before the 2025 MLB All-Star break, Skubal torched the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field with a sterling seven-inning performance, allowing zero runs while fanning out 10 strikeouts in a 7-2 win on July 6. He made his first start since the break on July 20 and victimized the Texas Rangers with another solid outing on the mound, giving up just an earned run on four hits with no walks while tallying 11 strikeouts in a 2-1 win.
Through 10 starts away from home this season, Skubal has gone 3-2 with a 2.11 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP while holding opposing hitters to just a .183 batting average over 64.0 innings.
As for the Tigers, they have seemingly gotten it together after a brutal start to the second half of the season. They came out of the break losing eight of nine games before going 5-1 through Saturday. The only loss in that span was the series-opening 5-4 setback at the hands of Philadelphia on Friday.
The 25-47 Tigers will look to win the Phillies pitcher this Sunday when they give the ball to 41-year-old Charlie Morton.
