CLEVELAND, Ohio — The first thing Tarik Skubal did when he heard that Matthew Boyd had signed with the Guardians at the end of June was send him a text message.
The message said, “Traitor’ because Boyd had signed with another AL Central team.
It was sent, of course, in jest. Boyd and Skubal are friends and pitched together with the Tigers as recently 2023.
They have a lot in common.
They’re both left-handed. They’ve both compared notes on their Tommy John surgeries.
Boyd grew up in the Seattle area. He uses Jimi Hendrix, the Seattle-born quitar hero, as his walk-up music. Skubal went to college in Seattle before being drafted by the Tigers in 2018.
Then there’s Monday’s appointment at Progressive Field. Boyd will be trying to give the Guardians a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series, while Skubal will be aiming to give the Tigers a chance to return to Detroit for Game 3 with the series tied at 1-1.
“It should be fun,” said Skubal.
Fun means different things to different people. Eating an ice cream cone at the beach on a hot summer day can be fun. Boyd having the opportunity to push his former team to the brink of elimination with a good performance sounds like a far more serious undertaking.
Detroit left-hander Tarik Skubal will start aganst the Guardians in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday at Progressive Field.Josh Boland | MLive.com
When a pitcher has had a regular season such as Skubal’s, everything is fun. He went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 31 starts. Skubal led the AL in wins, ERA and strikeouts with 228. The opposition hit .201 against him in 192 innings.
In Game 1 of Detroit’s postseason sweep of AL West champion Houston, he pitched six scoreless inning with six strikeouts in a 3-1 win.
To be frank, he’s a handful.
While Skubal was becoming this year’s AL Cy Young favorite, Boyd was returning from Tommy John surgery. He had the surgery on June 28, 2023 after making 15 starts with Detroit. He’s been on the rehab trail ever since.
Monday’s postseason start is a signpost Boyd could only dream about during his year-long recovery.
“I just have so much gratitude to be where I’m at right now,” said Boyd. “In the middle of June, I’m throwing showcases for teams, coaching my kids Little League games and praying everything works out the right way.”
Boyd made five rehab starts after he signed with Cleveland. He moved into the big league rotation and went 2-2 with a 2.72 ERA in eight starts before the regular season ended.
“Matt brings a great presence to this clubhouse,” said catcher Bo Naylor. “While he hasn’t been here that long with this group, as welcoming as they are, it has been really easy for him to settle in.
“I think he’s had a really strong influence on the younger pitchers on this team.”
Boyd says he may have leaned on Skubal more than Skubal leaned on him in 2023. Skubal missed the start of the season when he had surgery on his right forearm. So a lot of their conversations dealt with recovering from their individual surgeries.
“Tarik didn’t need much help,” said Boyd. “You talk about a guy who has all the tools and is dripping with that drive and talent.
“When you’re on a team with someone, we’re all trying to make each other better. If there were anyway I helped Tarik, he helped me equally as much. Tarik is a guy I really leaned on over the last year through the rehab process.”
Skubal is 2-2 with a 3.46 ERA in his career against Cleveland. He faced them once this year in an 8-2 win on July 22 at Progressive Field. The Guardians reached Skubal for 10 hits in seven innings, but scored only one run. Eight of the 10 hits were singles.
Boyd has faced the Tigers twice in his career, throwing four scoreless innings against them in relief.
“Everybody loves Matt Boyd,” said Tiger manager A.J. Hinch, who managed him in 2021 and 2023. “I had him take a leadership role on the first teams I had as a veteran stability piece to a team that desperately needed it.
“Baseball is incredible. Sometimes it leads you to familiar places, and this one is leading us to a familiar face in a really big game against someone we all respect and admire. We’ll turn that off for a couple of hours, but I’m proud to know Matt Boyd. ”
Which is all well and good, but the hard part still has to be done.
“My job is to get outs as long as I’m out there,” said Boyd. “The game, regular season or postseason, is the same. You go pitch. Get as many outs as you can and let Vogter pull back on the reins when it’s time to flip it to somebody else.”
