DETROIT — Detroit Tigers fans have been pointing to this weekend’s three-game series against the Chicago Cubs as a measuring stick.
A 3-1 win over the Cubs on Friday in front of a sellout crowd of 40,132 provided a little glimpse of why they’re the real deal.
Left-hander Tarik Skubal was dominant, and the Tigers came up with several defensive gems. The Cubs played well, but a costly decision by third-base coach Quintin Berry was magnified in a close game.
“That was electric,” Cubs starter Ben Brown said. “The fans loved it, they were into every pitch, and obviously when Skubal is pitching it’s a different monster too. I’ve never been in the playoffs, but I can’t imagine it feeling much different than it was today.”
In a scoreless game in the fifth, Berry waved Pete Crow-Armstrong around third on Dansby Swanson’s double to left with no outs, then held him up too late. Crow-Armstrong was thrown out while scrambling back to third, and the Cubs didn’t score in the inning.
“We made a mistake on the bases that likely cost us some runs,” manager Craig Counsell said. “When it’s this close and it’s tough to score, those things tend to come back to hurt you.”
Counsell called it a “weird play,” saying Crow-Armstrong was slowing down going into third when Berry was looking at the play in left by Riley Greene, then reversed his decision too late.
“If ‘Q’ could do it over, I think he’d keep his eyes on Pete a little bit, in addition to (the play),” Counsell said. “He thought there was maybe a chance to score if Pete is coming. Pete saw it the other way.”
Crow-Armstrong said he and Berry were on “the exact same page the whole time.” Berry was skewered on social media, but Crow-Armstrong defended him.
“I’d rather my coach be aggressive than not,” Crow-Armstrong said. “The play was behind me so I didn’t really know what was going on. So I put my trust in him and I’ll do it the rest of the year as well as we go.”
Brown took the loss despite allowing only two runs over seven innings while striking out seven, matching Skubal for most of the night.
Brown called it the “most high-leverage intensity I’ve ever pitched in” during his career.
“The last two starts we’ve gotten the great Ben Brown,” Counsell said. “That’s a great sign for us, and a big step for us and a big boost of confidence for Ben.”
Trailing 1-0 in the sixth, the Cubs tied it on Kyle Tucker’s RBI double, but Spencer Torkelson’s solo home run off Brown in the sixth handed the Tigers the lead again. After Skubal was pulled for Will Vest with two on and two outs in the eighth, Kerry Carpenter made a leaping catch at the right-field wall to rob Seiya Suzuki, ending the inning and preventing two runs from scoring.
Counsell counted five defensive gems by the Tigers, including Greene robbing Crow-Armstrong in left in the second. The Tigers added an insurance run in the eighth on Jahmai Jones’ home run off Génesis Cabrera.
Comerica Park was buzzing as Skubal, the best pitcher in baseball, faced the major league’s top-hitting offense in the series opener, while Crow-Armstrong, one of the game’s most exciting young players, matched up against former Cubs shortstop Javier Báez, whom Crow-Armstrong was traded for in the summer of 2021.
“It should set up for a pretty fun weekend in Detroit,” Skubal said earlier this week in Chicago. “They’ve already posted stuff about how tickets are standing-room only. It’ll be fun and a good series. That’s a good team, a good lineup. They kind of do everything well.”
So do the Tigers, who came in with baseball’s best record at 41-23. The Cubs were right behind them at 39-23 and had the majors’ best run differential at plus-106.
Even so, Counsell wouldn’t take a bite out of the apple when asked beforehand if this resonated more than any other series.
“Look, it’s a series in June,” Counsell said. “There are going to be a lot of people here this weekend. That’s fun for our players. They love that. It’s a challenge against a good team. We love that. But other than that, it’s three games. That’s how you’ve got to treat it.”
That’s why Counsell is a manager and not a hype man. He never wavers in his lifelong pursuit of treating every day the same.
Counsell knew Cubs and Tigers fans and the media would supersize this series into a made-for-October matchup in early June. Facing Skubal — the 2024 AL Cy Young Award winner — would be a monumental challenge for the Cubs, who just finished a 21-game stretch against sub-.500 teams with a 16-5 record.
“People are going to show up to watch one of the better pitchers in baseball throw against one of the better teams in baseball,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Skubal (6-2) allowed one run on eight hits over 7 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking none.
“It looks like what he’s been doing all year,” Crow-Armstrong said, adding: “A 3-1 (game,) with a lot of chances on both sides. That’s a good game for everybody watching.”
In his previous 10 starts, Skubal had 89 strikeouts to only three walks — the first pitcher in major-league history to post those numbers in a 10-game span during the same season. His 14.14-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio coming in was nearly double the next-closest competitor, and he had a 14-1 record and 1.95 ERA in 22 starts at Comerica Park since the start of the 2024 season.
Hitters facing Skubal know he’s going to throw strikes, so some just try to be aggressive early in the at-bat and hope he makes a mistake sooner or later.
“Hope is not really a strategy,” Counsell correctly said.
Maybe, but as Andy Dufresne said in “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
While Skubal was centerstage Friday, it also was a chance for Crow-Armstrong and the rejuvenated Báez to put on a show for a national streaming audience on Apple TV. With 16 home runs, 53 RBIs and 21 steals, Crow-Armstrong was the only player in the majors with at least 15 home runs, 50 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. Báez, who was limited to 80 games last year due to injuries, is hitting .276 and playing four positions, making a bid for the Comeback Player of the Year award.
Cubs President Jed Hoyer dealt Báez and pitcher Trevor Williams to the New York Mets at the 2021 trade deadline for the skinny prospect who was injured in Class A. It broke the hearts of many Cubs fans who grew to love Báez for his eye-opening skills at short and on the basepaths.
Crow-Armstrong isn’t really comparable to Báez, but they both love showing off their skills and playing to the crowds — and swinging at every pitch.
Counsell said it’s easy to see why they’re linked together.
“I absolutely understand it, and the way they both hit — it’s a free-swinging approach to hitting, if that translates well,” Counsell said. “But it’s really the other parts of the game that draws you to them.
“In Javy’s case, it was kind of the flair on defense and the instinctual base running. In Pete’s case, it’s the thing you can do with speed. You can not know much about baseball and sports and say, ‘That kid is fast.’ And that’s fun, and your eyes are drawn to that.”
Báez is OK with the comparisons with Crow-Armstrong.
“If they say that, it’s for a reason,” he said. “He’s been putting up the numbers. I’ve been seeing the type of athlete he is, and he’s a really good athlete. Obviously it’s great for the Cubs that he’s playing really good baseball too. I’m just trying to stay healthy and play the whole season, and hopefully we can play against them in the playoffs.”
That wouldn’t just be the playoffs. It would be the World Series.
If that happens, it would be a rematch of the 1945 World Series, which the Tigers won in seven games. The Cubs and Tigers were aiming for that rematch in 1984 until the Cubs lost to the San Diego Padres in the National League Championship Series after blowing a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series. That ’84 season would be the Tigers’ last championship.
But that’s not something anyone was thinking about as the series began Friday.
As Counsell said, it’s just three games in June.
After Friday’s electric atmosphere at Comerica Park, is anyone buying that?
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