This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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As with the Astros/Mariners series last week, the first game will set the tone. The Tigers, who need to win these games from the front, put the best pitcher in the AL on the mound in Tarik Skubal. Skubal is going to win his second straight AL Cy Young Award. Last Thursday, he threw six innings of one-run ball against the Guardians in a game his bullpen then blew. A.J. Hinch moved up Skubal, who can start tonight and then again Sunday if necessary, both on four days’ rest. That doesn’t sound unusual, but as I wrote...last October?...two Octobers ago?...five days’ rest has become standard for pitchers. Skubal has made just seven of his 30 starts on four days’ rest this year. He’s been great -- a 2.72 ERA, a 40% (!) strikeout rate, and a 68/7 K/BB. His two best starts of the season have come on four days’ rest, including a two-hit shutout over the Guardians in May.
