Due to rain in the Detroit metropolitan area on Wednesday night, the previously scheduled matchup between the Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates at Comerica Park was postponed. To make up for the lost game, the two teams are playing a split doubleheader on Thursday with games starting at 1:10 and 5:40 p.m. EST. There was considerable anticipation around Thursday’s original matchup that would line up superstar starting pitchers Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes against one another, but the schedule change altered the probables. A.J. Pierzynski, former MLB catcher and current FOX Sports analyst, expressed his surprise that the much anticipated showdown was not going to take place.
“I understand, ‘Oh, they want to try and win one,’ but for the people,” Pierzynski said on Foul Territory Thursday afternoon. “For the people. Can Rob Manfred call them up and say, ‘Bob Nutting, can we please pitch Skenes against Skubal? Hey, A.J. Hinch, can we please make it?’ Come on, man. This is a matchup everybody in the world – make it the 7:00 game, put it on ESPN and everybody would tune in.”
Skubal is slated to pitch the first game of the day and will face Andrew Heaney, while Skenes is scheduled for the second matchup facing a Tigers pitcher to be announced. Since this matchup is an interleague game, the two teams will not be facing each other again this year unless they were to meet in the postseason. Scott Braun, the co-host of Foul Territory, stated that he would communicate the importance of such a showdown with both pitchers if he were the MLB commissioner.
“I would call Skubal and Skenes and say, ‘Hey, I know you guys get to pick when you’re pitching, but could we make this happen?,’ and I guarantee you knowing both of those pitchers that if you called them and asked them the day before, they would say ‘Yes,’” Braun explained. “Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes, some little injury or they really feel like it’s going to make a difference.”
Although former MLB catcher Erik Kratz recognized the appeal of the pitching matchup, he made the point that the Tigers virtually have a guaranteed win if the team pitches Skubal against anyone other than Skenes. Skubal is the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner and sported an ERA of 1.99 entering play on Thursday. Pierzynski later affirmed that Skubal was not afraid and would have been open to the matchup, resulting in Kratz explaining that he would pitch nine innings per game if he was able.
“I bet you A.J. Hinch said, ‘Tarik, which game do you want?,’ and it just didn’t match up where Skenes got to pitch which game he wanted, and this could be settled if there was someone who’s looking at the bigger picture who makes a phone call and at least tries,” Braun conveyed. “They don’t have to make them. I’m just saying it would have been cool to give that a shot. When you look back, you don’t get these opportunities often.”
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