Carlos Carrasco no match for Tarik Skubal in Yankees' shutout loss to Tigers
Yankees pitcher Carlos Carrasco walks to the dugout against the Detroit Tigers in the fourth inning on Tuesday in Detroit. Credit: AP/Paul Sancya
DETROIT — The general scouting report on Tigers lefthander Tarik Skubal is the same as with any top pitcher.
Take advantage of the few opportunities given and always – always – try to get to him early before he settles in.
Maybe next time.
After back-to-back singles against Skubal to open Tuesday afternoon’s game, the Yankees saw the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner retire 16 straight.
By that point Carlos Carrasco had had an outing similar to the one Milwaukee’s Nestor Cortes endured on Opening Day, the 1-2 punch of Skubal and the long ball sinking the Yankees, 5-0, on a 34-degree afternoon at Comerica Park.
“He’s as good as it gets,” Aaron Boone said of Skubal afterward. “Pressure him early like that, you hope you can cash in there, but it’s also what makes him really good. I thought he was tough today. Thought his fastball was good, but he’s so unpredictable, he can throw that changeup or drop in a slider at any point.”
Speaking of scouting reports, Jazz Chisholm Jr., who twice bounced back to Skubal and popped to third his third time up against the lefthander, said the Yankees pregame report revolved more around the pitcher’s fastball, which often sits in the 97-to-99 mph range and will occasionally touch 100. The Yankees saw that, yes, but more offspeed than expected.
“He pitched us completely different from (what) our scouting report had him throwing,” Chisholm said. “I was expecting more of the hard stuff today, he was throwing a lot of off-speed today, which he’s normally a fastball guy. He throws 100. Was expecting more fastballs, he threw a lot more off-speed today and he was hitting his spots with the off-speed as well. He was doing his thing today.”
The Yankees (6-5), who have lost three straight since opening this six-game trip with two victories in Pittsburgh, totaled six hits in the brisk 2 hour, 4-minute sprint, two of those hits coming in the first when Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice opened the game with consecutive hits.
Skubal (1-2, 3.78), who somehow lost his first two starts of the year, went on to retire 16 in a row en route to allowing four hits over six innings in which he struck out six.
“He was attacking the zone,” Chisholm said. “He kept us off balance, he hit his spots.”
Carrasco, though not bludgeoned to the degree Cortes was in the season-opener – when the Yankees homered on three straight pitches in the bottom of the first inning – saw three of four batters go deep in the fourth inning as the Tigers (7-4), winners of seven of their last eight games, more or less put the game away.
Carrasco (1-1, 7.71) allowed four runs, six hits and a walk over 4 1/3 innings.
The Tigers got one run in the second – Spencer Torkelson led off with a double and scored later on a Zach McKinstry sacrifice fly – before more or less putting the game away in the fourth.
Torkelson led off by roping a first-pitch slider to left, his third homer making it 2-0. After Colt Keith grounded out, McKinstry blasted a 90-mph sinker to right for his first home run of the season. Dillon Dingler made it back-to-back shots, hammering a 90-mph sinker to left, his first homer of 2025 making it 4-0.
“They were really aggressive on the first pitch, swinging a lot,” Carrasco said. “Even when they got behind in the count, there was hard contact too.”
The Yankees best chance came in the first when Goldschmidt, who had three more hits to raise his batting average to .381 and OPS to .935, led off with a single and Rice followed with a single (the DH is hitting .323 with a 1.092 OPS). But Judge (2-for-4) struck out swinging at a changeup and Chisholm grounded back to Skubal for a 1-3 putout, which put two runners in scoring position. Anthony Volpe, 4-for-12 with RISP entering the day, struck out looking at a 99-mph inside fastball to end the 17-pitch inning.
“Skubal got a lead and just beat us,” Boone said. “Period. It’s going to happen.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
