KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In Tarik Skubal , the Detroit Tigers have the biggest advantage in baseball. Not only is Skubal the ace of the Tigers, but he also leads the American League with 16 wins, a 2.50 ERA and 214 strikeouts. He is the frontrunner to win the AL Cy Young Award.
The bad news: Skubal struggles against the Kansas City Royals, especially at Kauffman Stadium.
The 27-year-old has allowed 16 runs (15 earned runs) across 15 innings in his last three starts against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, all losses for the Tigers. He has an opportunity to change the narrative in Wednesday's start, which has playoff implications.
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"I can't make the game bigger than it needs to be," Skubal said before Monday's series opener at Kauffman Stadium. "Results aside, I gotta be good at controlling what I can control, and that's probably the battle in itself, just because I know it too. That's where my focus is. Executing pitches, that's when I'm at my best."
Skubal is pitching for more than himself.
The Tigers (78-73) remain red-hot in their postseason push, winning 23 of their last 33 games. Entering Tuesday, the Tigers sit 1½ games behind the Minnesota Twins for the third and final spot in the American League wild-card race. There are 11 games remaining, including at least two Skubal starts.
"That's why you play, to get these experiences and learn from them," Skubal said. "No matter how these next four series go, it's going to be valuable for us going into next year and years in the future, if we really want to make a run at the big one. It's exciting."
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The Tigers have lost each of the last two Skubal starts, though Skubal wasn't at fault. He allowed two runs Sept. 6 to the Oakland Athletics in a 7-6 loss , and he allowed one run Sept. 12 to the Colorado Rockies in a 4-2 loss .
Manager A.J. Hinch is confident in Skubal against the Royals, even at Kauffman Stadium.
"There are certain matchups that are harder than others, but when we bring Tarik into this stadium, we expect him to pitch well," Hinch said, "and he can beat this team. They're very talented. They make a ton of contact. They have speed. They put pressure on you. They're not afraid to swing early. They don't swing and miss a ton. They're a challenge for anybody. But I have no fear of putting Tarik Skubal in the rotation in a big series."
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The Tigers haven't won a Skubal start at Kauffman Stadium since April 15, 2022 . In his five-year MLB career, he owns a 6.14 ERA in 36⅔ innings in seven games at Kauffman Stadium.
Skubal almost always has trouble at Kauffman Stadium, but the Royals have occasionally gotten to him at Comerica Park, as well. He has a 5.05 ERA against the Royals — both home and away — in his career, spanning 14 games.
"It's not a bad matchup for him," Hinch said. "When you look at different things throughout years, it's not the same team every year, so I don't really subscribe to the theory that there's issues with the team because these teams change a ton."
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After Wednesday, Skubal will start at some point in the penultimate series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Comerica Park, from Sept. 24-26. It could be his final start of the season, which ends Sept. 29.
But Skubal hopes to pitch in October.
"It's easy to say we don't think about it," Skubal said, "but everybody subconsciously is thinking about it. We're doing a good job of not making the game bigger than it needs to be and just trying to win today's game. We'll worry about tomorrow's game tomorrow. That is going to be very important in the long run for this group. We're young, so it's going to be us. If we're going to do it, it's going to be the guys in this room."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal overcome struggles vs. Royals at Kauffman Stadium?
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