Tarik Skubal Makes Unique MLB History With Another Dominant Performance

Reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal lost his first two outings of 2025, surrendering seven earned runs over 10 2/3 innings of work for the Detroit Tigers. Since then he has been aggressively unhittable—even more so than he was in his breakout campaign last year. The hard-throwing lefty pitched seven innings of one-run ball against the Texas Rangers on Friday night, racking up 12 strikeouts and inducing a ridiculous 32 whiffs.

Through eight starts he now sits at 4–2 and has lowered his ERA to 2.08 ERA and is right back on track when it comes to defending his Triple Crown. Friday night's magic allowed him to make some very specific—but also very impressive—MLB history.

Over those outings he has struck out 50 batters against one walk and carried a 0.97 ERA. Since ERA became an official stat way back in 1913, no pitcher has been able to post a similarly dominant stretch.

Tarik Skubal of the @tigers is the only MLB pitcher to have 50+ strikeouts, no more than 1 walk and an ERA under 1.00 over a 6-start span (since ERA became an official stat in both leagues in 1913). pic.twitter.com/Rd4XOcL4Th
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 10, 2025

Skubal was perfect through five innings and in total surrendered just two Rangers hits.

By any metric it was one of the best starts from anyone in MLB at this point of the season, and it moved the surprising Tigers to 26-13 on the year—good for a 2.5-game lead over the Clevland Guardians.