With two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal taking the mound, a pitchers’ duel could be on tap as the visiting Detroit Tigers look to even their four-game series against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday afternoon.

Skubal (2-2, 2.22 ERA), a left-hander, will try to play the role of stopper as Detroit’s road skid reached nine games with a 1-0, 10-inning setback in Friday’s series opener. Before Friday though, the Tigers had been on a six-game winning streak, with home sweeps of the Miami Marlins and Kansas City Royals.

Masataka Yoshida’s pinch-hit single scored Jarren Duran with the only run in a game Friday that featured just four hits for each team. For Detroit, Jahmai Jones had two.

Skubal will make his first start at Fenway Park since 2023. Last Sunday, in an 8-2 win over the Marlins, he threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts but thought he could do better. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

“My stuff wasn’t good,” Skubal said. “But those things happen in baseball. It’s not always when you have your best stuff. If that was the case, it would be easy to predict our game. It’s just not like that.”

Skubal carries a 2-2 record and 4.91 ERA against Boston into Saturday’s game, his sixth start vs. the Red Sox. Most recently, he allowed five runs on seven hits while striking out 11 in a May 14, 2025, no-decision in a game the Tigers won 6-5.

Before Friday’s first pitch, Detroit placed infielder Zach McKinstry on the 10-day injured list with left hip/abdominal inflammation and recalled No. 6 prospect Hao-Yu Lee from Triple-A Toledo for his MLB debut. He went 0-for-3.

“We’re excited for Lee to get his feet wet in the big leagues,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’ve had him in camp the last couple of seasons. … He can play good defense. He’s a good baseball player.”

Beyond Jones, Kevin McGonigle had another hit, giving him 22 and a .306 average to lead all AL rookies.

An eight-inning start from Ranger Suarez helped set the stage for Boston’s second consecutive win on Friday, but it took an extra frame and Yoshida’s first career walk-off knock to get the job done.

Yoshida has just 29 at-bats this season, though he is on a six-game hitting streak.

“In these situations, I know how he feels; you want to play,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We got him for a reason here (from Japan), and he’s been banged up, and now all of a sudden, this is how we’re going to play the game … with this roster and we’re going to maximize it, but it’s not easy.”

The Friday shutout win was Boston’s third of the season and second in as many home games.

Brayan Bello (1-1, 6.14 ERA) will look to throw his own gem on Saturday. The right-hander gave up a total of 10 runs (eight earned) in his first two starts before earning his first win with 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball last Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 9-3 game.

“When I’m staying in the zone, this is the result that you get,” Bello said after the game. “When I’m executing all of my pitches, being aggressive in the zone, this is what happens.”

Bello is 0-1 with a 5.74 ERA in three career starts against Detroit. He took a no-decision in a 10-9 Tigers win on May 13, 2025, after allowing three runs (two earned) in 4 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

A day after he was presented his 2025 National League Cy Young Award, Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes will be on the mound to face the visiting Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday afternoon.

Skenes (3-1, 4.00 ERA), who will oppose fellow right-hander Drew Rasmussen (1-0, 1.13) on Saturday, was presented the award by 1990 Cy Young winner and former Pirates ace Doug Drabek before the Pirates’ 5-1 win over Tampa Bay.

Skenes, who is 1-0 with an 0.64 ERA in two career starts against the Rays, has pitched more like a Cy Young winner since his disastrous Opening Day outing against the New York Mets in which he gave up five runs and didn’t survive the first inning. He is 3-0 with a 1.56 ERA in his three starts since then, allowing just six hits — including two solo home runs — striking out 17 batters and walking five.

In his most recent start, against the Washington Nationals on Monday, he allowed a solo home run to CJ Abrams with two outs in the first and did not allow another hit over his six-inning start in the Pirates’ 16-5 victory.

A major difference for Skenes this season has been the Pirates providing significant run support.

Pittsburgh scored only 11 runs in Skenes’ 10 losses last season. This season, they have scored a combined 25 runs in the innings before Skenes has exited his four starts and have scored seven or more runs in every game he’s started. Against Washington on Monday, the Pirates scored 15 runs over the first six innings.

“I told the guys after the game, ‘It makes it easy to pitch,'” Skenes said. “Even if I’m not getting it while I’m in the game, being out there pitching and knowing that it’s going to happen at some point makes it a lot easier to pitch.”

Rasmussen, an All-Star last year, is settling back into his normal pitching routine after a hectic 10-day period that followed the birth of his daughter. Rasmussen was scratched from his scheduled start on April 7 when his wife went into labor, and he spent the next four days on the paternity list and the family medical emergency list.

Rasmussen made a decision to pitch last Sunday against the New York Yankees without much time to prepare. He threw a gem in which he tossed six shutout innings and allowed one hit, no walks and struck out seven on 76 pitches in beating the Yankees 5-4.

“Stevie (his wife) and I ultimately decided maybe a little bit of normalcy would be nice,” Rasmussen said about choosing to come back early and pitch last Sunday. “Just kind of trying to focus on execution, putting a little bit more weight on (catcher Hunter Feduccia’s) shoulders and just taking it pitch by pitch. I don’t know if I shook off (Feduccia’s pitch call) once, in all honesty.”

Rasmussen said his wife, newborn daughter, and their son are all home, and he was able to resume his normal routines this week.

The Rays lost Rasmussen’s first two starts despite him not allowing more than one earned run over five innings in each outing. He has 17 strikeouts, one walk, and am 0.56 WHIP over 16 innings.

His next task will be to get the Rays back on track after they had their six-game winning streak snapped on Friday. Rasmussen is 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA in six career appearances vs. Pittsburgh, including one start.

–Field Level Media

Heliot Ramos and the San Francisco Giants will try to continue their offensive burst when they visit the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon for the middle contest of the teams’ three-game series.

Ramos hit a three-run homer as part of a 15-hit attack in a 10-5 San Francisco win on Friday night. It was the first time this season the Giants recorded double-digit runs, and they had scored three or fewer runs in each of their past five games.

For Ramos, it was his first homer of the season, and it came after he had been out of the starting lineup the previous two games. He began Friday hitting .231, with seven RBIs.

“It’s something that really woke me up,” Ramos, who drove in four runs Friday, said of not starting. “Obviously, I know it’s early, but at the end of the day, I have a pretty good sense of urgency, and I took it personally because I know I can be better than that. It did help me to work a lot. Just be aggressive at the plate, just be intentful, and I feel like it helped me with my mindset moving forward.”

The San Francisco left fielder gave the Giants a 3-0 lead during a six-run second inning, and they kept adding runs. A member of the National League All-Star team in 2024, Ramos had 21 homers and 69 RBIs last season.

“Ramos is an All-Star for a reason. Everyone expects him to be really good, and he expects that of himself,” Friday starter and winner Logan Webb said. “Good to see him get on track, and he’s been working his butt off, so awesome to see.”

Drew Gilbert and Casey Schmitt added solo shots for the Giants, and Matt Chapman had three hits and drove in three runs.

San Francisco will start Adrian Houser (0-2, 5.06 ERA) against fellow right-hander Cade Cavalli (0-1, 4.60) on Saturday.

Houser allowed four runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings of a 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles last Sunday. He is 0-1 with a 1.27 ERA in six career games (four starts) vs. Washington.

Cavalli lasted only 1 1/3 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, giving up four runs on three hits and three walks in a 16-5 defeat.

“You could tell he was frustrated he couldn’t get in the zone, just wasn’t able to find it tonight,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said after the game. “The first inning was good. It was just really when we went back out there for the second, he was just fighting himself, couldn’t get in there.”

Cavalli, who has never faced the Giants, has allowed 15 hits and issued 12 walks in 15 2/3 innings in 2026.

On Friday, James Wood and Daylen Lile homered, and Jose Tena had three hits for the Nationals, who were opening a seven-game homestand. Lile hit a two-run shot, his first homer of the season, to straight-away center off Webb to pull the Nationals within 8-3.

“It feels really good,” Lile said. “I didn’t think I had it in me to go dead center, but it’s good to get the first one. Now I’m just trying to keep having quality at-bats.”

–Field Level Media