AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS VS GUARDIANS

October 11, 2024

Tarik Skubal

Progressive Field

Detroit Tigers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Tarik, game like this, the familiarity, the magnitude, with all cards on the table, you can't trick them. They know who you are. Does it become a street play at this point? You just go at your best against their best?

TARIK SKUBAL: Yeah. That's kind of how I pitch anyways. Yeah, I think that's the whole game. This whole series has kind of been like that, too. I think that's who this team is. I think that's who our team is, too. So it sets it up to be a pretty fun game.

Q. Tarik, at what point did you get locked in -- like were you thinking Game 5 even before we knew there was going to be a Game 5, just knowing how routine oriented you are?

TARIK SKUBAL: I mean, I was preparing like I was going to go, but I didn't really think -- yesterday my focus was on Game 4 and doing whatever I could to -- I guess I was a cheerleader yesterday, doing whatever I could to get our guys going.

But, yeah. No. It'll be a ton of fun tomorrow, though. I'm excited for it.

Q. Does this feel like it's supposed to be? You guys were so back and forth all year, back and forth in this series. It comes down to winner take all?

TARIK SKUBAL: Yeah. I think our team wouldn't want to have it any other way. We've been playing these winner-take-all games for about a month and a half, two months now. And it's fun. It's why you play the game, for moments like this, and for stages like this in this setting, too.

So I think our guys will respond well, and it'll be a ton of fun.

Q. Jake's obviously caught every one of your starts. How glad are you that his X-rays came back clean?

TARIK SKUBAL: I didn't even know he had X-rays. I got a text this morning asking how he was from my trainer back home. I didn't even know. That's good news, yeah. Good news.

Q. What's it mean to have Matthew Boyd out here?

TARIK SKUBAL: I've said it before and I'll say it again. That guy means a lot to me. I've got a ton of respect for him. His family is great. Who he is in the clubhouse is great.

So just being able to talk about it and say how much fun that was to compete against each other was also really special. I think that's what's cool about this game is it's competitive. You do everything you can to win, but at the end of the day, we're humans. It's cool to have that human interaction and be able to just enjoy it.

Q. You're a passionate player. You show your emotion. Have you always been that way? Have you always been in the moment like that?

TARIK SKUBAL: I probably think so. Yeah, I probably think so. If you ask probably my college coaches, I probably was a little bit worse in college. I think that's just the atmosphere in college, everyone there is kind of -- like the hard-O thing goes on there pretty good.

Yeah, I was kind of like that in college. And then in high school I played with some emotion in basketball games. Not as much in baseball for whatever reason.

But, yeah, I think I am an emotional player. You work so hard for moments like this to go out and perform, and win, lose or draw, like it's going to be fun, and you're going to enjoy it.

Q. Tell your mom to scold you in person rather than social media?

TARIK SKUBAL: Yeah, that's interesting that my mom went to Twitter to say that because you should hear my mom when she was growing up. I think that's interesting, yeah, that she wants to make that comment. I've seen her get ejected out of plenty of high school basketball games. So I guess it might run in the family a little bit there.

Q. Is she worse than your dad?

TARIK SKUBAL: Oh, I've seen my dad do it, too. I don't know. I don't know. Genetics, I don't know.

Q. Tarik, what does it kind of mean to you, like we go right down the line in the clubhouse, and: Tarik's built for this. Nobody we'd rather have on the mound. We have all the faith in the world. To have their trust in this moment, maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's negligible, but what does that do for you to know that they got you, they want you out there?

TARIK SKUBAL: I mean, if you ask any player, I think you want respect of your peers, the guys you go to work with every single day. You want the respect and trust of your peers. I wouldn't brush that off. I think that means a lot.

I think that means a lot for me to earn that from them. You know, it's all earned, and I'd say the same thing for those guys. If you ask me about any guy, I think the preparation that goes into it, all the stuff that happens that, no, there's no cameras, no media, off-season stuff, I'd say the same thing about those guys.

But it means a lot coming from them, and I think that's just kind of who we are as a team. We go to battle every single day. We're young. We want it more than anybody. So it'll be a ton of fun. But it means a lot.

Q. Is there something about a rowdy crowd on the road that allows you to lock in and find your best?

TARIK SKUBAL: Yeah. I don't know. That's a good question. I mean, playoff baseball is just so much fun. I think the last month and a half of baseball for us where it was kind of like, you know, that graph where we're trending in the right direction, I think that's just fun. I think it brings out the best in everybody, you know, the focus, the drive. You look forward to going to work and get better each and every day.

I haven't been able to say that for the last four years in September, you know, because it was just like, okay, here's our last game, season's over.

So, yeah, I think -- you work hard and you prepare for these moments to just go out there and play, but I don't know if on the road -- I would love to throw in front of our home fans, too. But, yeah, I'm going to go out there and compete and give it everything I've got, and that's all I can promise.

Q. Pitching coaches, allowed them to help bring the best out of you and so many other guys as well?

TARIK SKUBAL: You said our pitching coaches? Yeah. I think, one, they're incredibly smart. Two, they're great at communicating with the knowledge and what they want. They can simplify it into very simple things for players to understand, you know, myself included.

I don't want to know everything that's going on with my mechanics or how my body is moving or internal rotation here. I don't want to know any of that. Just tell me what I need to do to -- give me a drill to just go work on it, and it'll naturally happen.

But they're really good at that stuff and scouting reports. I think they're just very dialed in, and I think it shows with the guys that we have in the clubhouse.