'Everything felt good': Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on track for Thursday start after pain-free bullpen session

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Sep 16, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT — Tarik Skubal is on track to make his scheduled start against the Guardians on Thursday, though manager AJ Hinch stopped short of saying it's a done deal.

"We said we were going to go day by day and we have," Hinch said before the game Tuesday against the Guardians. "He's inching closer to his start day. Obviously we're thrilled with the news that things were looking positive."

Skubal on Monday threw his usual between-starts bullpen and felt none of the tightness in his upper rib cage area that forced him out of his start in Miami.

"Everything felt good," Skubal said. "Just one of those weird things. I don't really know how to explain it. But the bullpen went well, the scans came back good, so it's on to the next one."

He was asked if he held anything back in his bullpen session, just as a precaution.

"No, it was a normal working pen," he said. "If anything, I probably worked a little harder just to make sure I was good to go. There was nothing there."

Tigers Nation certainly gave a collective sigh of relief. Skubal, too.

"During the game, I was a little worried about it," he said. "But once I came out and calmed down a little bit and ran through most of the tests with our trainers, I wasn't too concerned after that."

If the Tigers take care of business Tuesday and Wednesday, Skubal could be on the mound with a chance to clinch the Central Division title Thursday.

"This series is going to be fun," he said. "Cleveland is a good team and we tend to play good baseball games against each other. It starts (Tuesday) with Casey (Mize) and hopefully we win (Wednesday) with (Jack Flaherty) and hopefully sweep. That's the division if the math works out. But it starts with (Tuesday), for sure."