On Saturday, the World Baseball Classic had a wild day. Puerto Rico and the Netherlands both hit walk-off home runs, and Team USA ended up winning 9-1 over Great Britain in Game 2 of Group B play. The Americans are now 2-0 and will host Team Mexico on Monday night, followed by a date with Italy on Tuesday.
Detroit Tigers' star Tarik Skubal toed the slab for the Americans to begin. He would go on to pitch 3.0 innings, allowing two hits, a home run on the first pitch of the game, and struck out five hitters. If it wasn't for Nate Eaton's homer on the first pitch, Skubal likely would have had a clean outing. In fact, that was the only run GB scored all game, and it happened to be on the first pitch they saw.
As it turns out, Skubal has not left the team to head back to his Tigers squad in Florida yet … and fans are thinking he may pitch one more time with Team USA (likely in the championship game or semi-finals if needed).
“Two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal was at USA's workout today instead of traveling back to the Detroit Tigers' camp in Lakeland, Fla.
Skubal remains undecided whether he will pitch again for Team USA in their potential WBC championship game.”
Skubal even talked about it after his start.
“I didn’t expect these types of emotions to run through my brain or my thoughts to differ. I was pretty committed to making a start and getting back to camp,” Skubal said, per The Athletic. “Things have changed, obviously, that’s why I’m going to have some conversations to try and figure out a plan for me.”
