It’s not often a regular-season game carries the weight of history, but Saturday afternoon’s matchup between Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler and Detroit Tigers star Tarik Skubal just might.
The two current Cy Young Award front-runners are set to face off in Philadelphia in a battle of division leaders.
Only once in MLB history have the eventual winners of the award pitched against each other during the regular season. That occurred on June 13, 2012, when Tampa Bay’s David Price shared the mound against the New York Mets’ R.A. Dickey at Tropicana Field.
Skubal (10-3), who leads the American League with a 2.09 ERA and an average of 11.51 strikeouts per nine innings, is aiming to become the first repeat winner of the AL’s Cy Young Award since Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000.
Wheeler (9-4, 2.56 ERA), a right-hander, leads the National League with 172 strikeouts and an 0.890 WHIP. He is second with 11.58 strikeouts per nine innings.
The Tigers are counting on Skubal to help them recover from squandering a 3-0 lead and losing 5-4 to the Phillies on Friday. The left-hander’s last loss was July 11 to Seattle, and he’s struck out 18 and allowed only one run in the two games since.
Skubal has not allowed any runs on three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts over seven innings in his one career appearance against the Phillies.
Detroit hopes Skubal will be able to pitch deep in the game so that the Tigers won’t have to rely as much on their struggling bullpen. Four Tigers relievers gave up four of the Phillies’ five runs on Friday as Detroit had its four-game winning streak snapped.
“We didn’t retire the first batter of the guys that came out of the (bullpen), except for (Brenan) Hanifee, when he punched out (J.T) Realmuto,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Just too many mistakes at the end, whether it’s pitches or not. … They capitalized.”
With Detroit struggling against right-handed pitching, Wheeler likely will keep Tigers hitters guessing with his six-pitch mix. He has a 1-0 record against Detroit with an ERA of 2.45 and 16 strikeouts in two career appearances.
While the game will showcase Skubal and Wheeler, the Phillies hope newly acquired closer Jhoan Duran continues to pay dividends, as he did Friday. The former Twin came on in the ninth inning and picked up his 17th save of the season by shutting down the Tigers on four pitches.
“First pitch was a 98 mile-per-hour split,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.”
Duran’s former Minnesota teammate, Harrison Bader, also had a hand in the victory by scoring a run in his debut. The Phillies believe he can stabilize their outfield and give them more offensive production.
“I’ve been injected into a playoff race,” Bader said. “All the notions of ego, or ‘me, me, and my playing time,’ that’ll go out the window. I’m here to win. I’m here to help this team to win. And I want a shot at the World Series. … I’m excited to dive into it and see how it shakes out.”
–Field Level Media
