Tarik Skubal rusty in return, Guardians edge Tigers, 3-1

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Jun 13, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CLEVELAND — There are no magic pills or potions in baseball.

The return of reigning, two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will provide a shot in the arm for the Tigers over time, but it was unrealistic to think he was going come back after missing 45 days and turn the season around.

There was bound to be rust.

Skubal, back after having a loose body arthroscopically removed from his elbow, labored. He went 4 2/3 innings and pitched under nearly constant duress. He finished with three runs on his ledger, two of them earned and the Tigers endured another frustrating loss to the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians’ 3-1 win Saturday was their sixth straight over the Tigers this season.

Skubal threw 80 pitches in an outing that included a walk (to a left-handed hitter), a hit-batsman (to a batter hitting .100) and a two-run homer by another left-handed hitter on an 0-2 pitch.

It also included a bushel of high-octane fastballs (averaging 97.9 mph), four strikeouts, nine swings and misses and just four hard-hit balls. The average exit velocity on the 13 balls put in play against him was 76.1 mph.

But Skubal’s return couldn’t help the offense get unstuck in this series.

After scoring first on a two-out, RBI single by Dillon Dingler in the first inning, the Tigers didn’t get another hit with runners in scoring position (0 for 12).

They put the first two hitters on in the third inning and didn’t score. Guardians starter Joey Cantillo struck out Dingler, got Riley Greene to fly out and struck out Jahmai Jones.

They were gifted a leadoff triple by Dingler in the sixth and didn’t score. The Guardians lost two of their outfielders to injury in the game (they also lost Jose Ramirez to injury in the fifth inning) and had to put veteran Rhys Hoskins into left field in the sixth. He hadn’t played outfield since 2018.

Dingler sent a high fly ball to the wall that had Hoskins spinning.

But reliever Colin Holderman struck out Greene and Spencer Torkelson and got pinch-hitter Colt Keith to fly out.

Tigers hitters struck out 10 times, five with runners in scoring position.

Another day, another step in the wrong direction for the Tigers, who, after a winning homestand, are 13 games under .500 (29-42).

There was more action crammed in the first three innings Saturday than in the totality of the Tigers’ 3-2 loss on Friday.

The umpiring crew lost one member, Mike Muchlinski, who left the game with an illness in the second inning.

The Guardians lost two starting outfielders. Chase DeLauter was pulled after he lashed a 100-mph sinker from Skubal into left field for a single. He had crashed into the wall in the first inning chasing a leadoff, first-pitch double by Gleyber Torres.

The Guardians announced he had bruised his right rib cage.

Leadoff hitter Angel Martinez fouled a 98-mph pitch off the top of his left foot in the first inning. He stayed in the at-bat and grounded out but was pulled shortly after.

The bottom of the second was, to say the least, eventful.

Left-handed hitting Travis Bazzana singled and Skubal hit light-hitting Stuart Fairchild (.100) in the elbow. The Guardians pulled off a double steal, which produced a run when catcher Dillon Dingler’s throw went into left field.

Fairchild went to third.

The Tigers got out of that inning. Third baseman Hao-Yu Lee, just recalled from Triple-A Toledo, snared a high-hopper by Austin Hedges and threw Fairchild out at the plate. Dingler did a good job of blocking the plate and applying the tag.

Lee threw another Guardians baserunner out at the plate to help Skubal escape a mess in the fourth.

The Guardians broke the 1-1 tie in the third. Ramirez (who left the game in the fifth with an unannounced injury) dumped a two-strike pitch into right field for a double and lefty-swinging Daniel Schneemann, who replaced DeLauter in the lineup, walloped an 0-2 fastball from Skubal into the seats in right-center.

It was just the fourth left-on-left homer off Skubal since the start of the 2024 season.

The Guardians finished the game with their designated hitter, David Fry, playing left. Their closer, Cade Smith, hitting in the designated-hitter spot and the starting center fielder in right.