Tarik Skubal rarely every gives up home runs. He only allowed 18 in 195 1/3 innings this season and was even better last year —15 in 192 innings, good for 0.8 and 0.7 HR/9, respectively. Even before he had fully evolved into his two-time Cy Young-winning form, he was pretty good at avoiding the long ball and had gone five regular seasons without giving up a grand slam.
And then Lane Thomas happened. In Game 5 of the 2024 Tigers-Guardians ALDS, Skubal was on the mound to try to keep Detroit’s miracle run alive. He was great through four innings but fell apart in the fifth, when he gave up three singles with only one out and hit José Ramírez with a pitch to walk in Cleveland’s tying run.
Skubal served up a first-pitch meatball of a sinker to Thomas, who sent it out into left-center for a grand slam. The Tigers ended up going home on a final score of 7-3.
Thomas was absent during the Guardians’ playoff run this year, having undergone surgery for plantar fasciitis in late September, and he became a free agent at the end of the season.
But Tigers fans haven’t seen the last of him. On Thursday, Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that he had agreed to a deal with the Royals to remain in the AL Central.
Tigers killer Lane Thomas is staying in the AL Central after signing a deal with the Royals
Skubal has since given up one more grand slam — to Shea Langeliers of the Athletics (a team that the Tigers mystifyingly always seem to lose to) — but Thomas gets the individual honor of being the first to ever do it, and in a decisive postseason game, no less. He also hit .316 with a .917 OPS, two homers and nine RBI in the ALDS against Detroit.
Tigers fans should keep a side eye toward the Royals, who have been relatively active in a pretty dead offseason for the AL Central. After signing Thomas, they extended Gold Glove infielder Maikel Garcia on a five-year contract, and they’ve reportedly been eyeing the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández in trade talks. Thomas’ presence should take some heat off of that particular rumor, but they could still use an offensive upgrade from Kyle Isbel.
It isn’t that Thomas is even a particularly prolific hitter against the Tigers — he has a .238/.286/.405 career line against them in the regular season — but Detroit fans are never going to forget that grand slam, and he’ll have a lot more opportunities to do more of that now that he’s staying in the division.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source motorcitybengals.com ’
