HOUSTON – This is now Tarik Skubal’s calling card. A powerful pitch. One strikeout to end an inning. Then a fist bump and a mighty roar.

“When he comes off the mound, he has to be heads up,” Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch said recently. “If you greet him with too big of a hug, he might push you down the stairs.”

Skubal has been doing it all season, the display of raw emotion and the performance that backs up such exuberant acts. He did it again on Tuesday in Houston. Skubal made his first career postseason start and was as nervous as he had been since his major league debut. He lived up to his billing with his dominant regular season.

Choose the title you prefer: Ace; workhorse; Front starter. Skubal checks them all. He further cemented his growing claim to the title of best pitcher in baseball, this time turning six scoreless innings and leading his young Tigers to a 3-1 win in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series.

“I know it’s a bigger event and in front of a big audience, both here locally and with our fans and around the country,” Hinch said. “But we saw a lot of those starts from Tarik Skubal. This is not an outlier. That’s why a lot of people call him one of the best pitchers in the world.”

Facing the dangerous top half of Houston’s lineup, Skubal retired Jose Altuve, Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez in five pitches in the first inning. This is one way to set the tone.

Here at Minute Maid Park, a stadium that has hosted many a pitcher in the postseason, Skubal was undeterred by the moment and the magnitude. His signature changeup spun and disappeared from the batsmen. He used the field 32 times. He also attacked the strike zone with his powerful four-seam and sinker. Of all the reasons why Skubal has proven to be a force to be reckoned with, his striking power is perhaps the biggest. The pitcher, who fired 68.7 percent first-pitch strikes in the regular season and ranked second among all qualified pitchers in percentage of pitches in the zone, simply did more of it.

“He’s done that all year,” catcher Jake Rogers said with a shrug.

🗣️ How we feel in Detroit!? pic.twitter.com/xuh5b0Jjyt

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) October 1, 2024

Only two moments were an obstacle for Skubal on Tuesday. The first came in the fourth inning when the Astros mounted a challenge. Alvarez hit a single. Alex Bregman struggled for nine pitches before exiting. Yainer Diaz ended another nine-pitch affair with a walk. With two ons and one out, Skubal neither changed his approach nor revised his plan. He relied on Jake Rogers, the backstop who has caught every Skubal start this season and who Skubal said he was only able to shake off once the entire game. That was on the field when Alvarez was running up the middle at 117 mph.

“It almost killed me,” Skubal said. “So yeah, I learned my lesson. I’m not shaking.”

Against shortstop Jeremy Peña, Skubal got a strikeout after a dirty changeup deep and inside. Then, against Victor Caratini, Skubal scored a punchout with another changeup that floated off the plate to the outside.

And then came this tiger’s latest roar.

“There’s a part of it where you kind of black out and it just happens,” Skubal said. “But yeah, it was a big pitch.”

The second hint of trouble came in the sixth inning. Skubal was involved in another duel with Bregman. After firing off a pitch, it seemed to land strangely on his follow-through. Skubal called Rogers to the mound. He paced behind the dirt. Hinch and coach Ryne Eubanks jogged onto the field. Everyone held their breath. Skubal told them that he was having cramps in his left thigh muscles.

“I felt a lot better when he said the word ‘cramp,'” Hinch said.

Rogers looked at his ace and said, “One more. That’s all we need.”

Skubal stayed in the game. Bregman led a line drive off the left field wall. But Skubal was not impressed. He attacked Diaz and recorded his sixth and final strikeout with a high fastball at 99.4 mph.

After only 88 pitches and six scoreless innings, Skubal retired to the dugout. He ventured down the steps leading to the clubhouse and Hinch followed him. They decided his day was over.

Tarik Skubal: “I mean, I’m fine. I’m not really worried about it continuing.”

“But it’s frustrating. I don’t know what I can do. I hydrate sufficiently. Diet is fine. Probably a product of trying to throw every pitch pretty hard. I’m a big sweater.” https://t.co/9rcOjH2aXL

— Cody Stavenhagen (@CodyStavenhagen) October 1, 2024

Even though the end came an inning early, the result was exactly what we’ve seen from Skubal all season. Precision. Perfomance. Dominance.

This is the type of mix that allows a pitcher to show his will and take a team to the next round. Faced with his greatest challenge yet, Skubal responded coldly. Anyone who was surprised simply didn’t watch him enough.

“You see him screaming from the mound, as competitive as he is,” Hinch said. “We see that every day and I’m glad the baseball world gets to see it on the biggest stage of the year so far because it’s authentic and has a real impact on our club.”

The plan from here, Hinch said, was to “wreak havoc.” That’s become the Tigers’ trademark over the past two months, ever since Hinch and president of baseball operations Scott Harris sat together at their post-trade deadline breakfast and devised a plan to turn their young and untested arms into the best they could be position for success.

We’ve seen it in so many games. Green pitchers throw in new situations. Unheralded weapons lead to game-changing outs.

“I love it,” Skubal said. “These guys have been doing this for a month and a half. Just mix and match, in any situation, in any scenario. Doesn’t matter. Straight from (Triple-A) Toledo straight into the leverage inning. It doesn’t matter who takes the ball. They come in and make pitches.”

We saw it all again on Tuesday in Game 1, when right-hander Beau Brieske came out of the bullpen and was called upon to clean up Jason Foley’s two-run mess and ruin any chance of Houston’s postseason magic. Not long ago, Brieske was in camp hoping to get into the rotation as a starter. A few years earlier, he was a 27th-round draft pick who threw 93 mph. But through hard work, the right leadership and now the right opportunities, Brieske has shown signs of becoming a fearsome reliever.

“If I do my best, attack and execute, then I have things that can play in any inning,” Brieske said. “I always believed that.”

Less than two weeks ago, Brieske pitched the Tigers out of the second and third ninth innings in Baltimore, a win that helped propel them to the postseason. He stepped into a similar position on Tuesday. He remembered it clearly in the bullpen.

“I’ve done it before. Be ready,” he said. “Then when I ran on the field, that moment captured the attention right there.”

Jake Rogers and Beau Brieske celebrate after the Tigers won Game 1 in Houston. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

Using his fastball and a nasty changeup, Brieske got Caratini to move to left field. He went to Chas McCormick after he failed to hit the so-called “kill shot,” an up-and-down power fastball. But on the radar he reached 100.1 mph, a career high that highlights his prowess. The last batter of the game was Jason Heyward. The veteran outfielder hit an 88.9 mph line drive that flew right into the glove of first baseman Spencer Torkelson. Breathe out again.

“Well placed defense,” Hinch said, grinning.

Before Game 1, the Tigers sent Reese Olson to the media room as Pitching Chaos’ official spokesperson. The term means the Tigers won’t be operating with a traditional starter in Games 2 or 3.

“The only thing I really know,” Olson said, “is that whenever AJ tells me to go on the mound, I’ll go.”

After the game, Brieske lifted small weights to his side in the clubhouse and underwent arm care, theoretically unsure when he would next be used. Tyler Holton, the Tigers’ do-it-all bullpen ace, had a recovery device on his shoulder after throwing just two pitches and striking out Kyle Tucker. The Tigers announced he will serve as the opener for Game 2 on Wednesday.

As the Tigers players left the ballpark on Tuesday with the sun still high in the Texas sky, they couldn’t have been in a more ideal situation. Your ace made a shove in game 1. Their bullpen held the lead, which was no worse despite the playoff drama. They have two games left to choose the encounters to their liking and then use their best weapons with few restrictions to play the combative but outside-the-box style that has helped them defy the odds.

“I don’t think it’s a small thing today, the first playoff game for a lot of these guys, it looked eerily familiar to them over the last two months,” Hinch said.

As impressive as the Astros are, the Tigers are now in a new position of influence.

Since MLB switched to a best-of-three wild-card format, teams that win Game 1 have advanced all eight times.

(Top photo by Tarik Skubal: Tim Warner / Getty Images)