Commentary: In battle of aces, Tigers prevail

Sometimes the other guy is just better. Like Tarik Skubal. Sometimes the other other guy falls short because of it. Like Gavin Williams. The Cinderella Guardians found that out Tuesday at sun-drenched Progressive Field, where Guards pitcher Gavin Williams was magnificent, but Detroit Tigers ace Skubal was even better than that. Not by much, but Skubal was better ... barely. The result was an excruciating 2-1 Guardians loss to a team the Guards rewrote the record books on this summer by coming from 15½ games behind Detroit to win the division. On Sept. 4, the Guards trailed Detroit in the division standings by 11 games before the Guardians unleashed a a prodigious finishing kick that clinched the division title for manager Stephen Vogt's team. Sometimes the other team is just better. It will be hard to determine the eventual winner between the two best teams in the Central Division, but they have two games left to decide it — today and Thursday. If the Guardians have an edge, it's that the two remaining games will be played in the next two days at Progressive Field. The good news for the Guardians is that they won't have to face Skubal today, unless Detroit manager A.J. Hinch decides to send his ace back onto the mound, either as a starter or reliever. However the two managers decide to deploy their two aces, it should be prime time hardball for everyone interested. Guards starting pitcher Williams pitched six innings, allowing two unearned runs, one walk and five hits while striking out eight. Skubal was better. He was a one-man wrecking crew and a one-man pitching crew: 7 2/3 innings, three hits, one run, three walks and a whopping 14 strikeouts. The pitchers went toe-to-toe for most of the afternoon, but it was Skubal who saved the day for Detroit. The big left-hander and reigning Cy Young winner had his way with the Guardians' lightweight lineup. If there is a silver lining for the Guardians it is that Skubal presumably won't be given a heavy workload in either of the teams' two remaining games. Given, however, the competitive nature of the teams, either of starter Tuesday — Williams or Skubal — could still see action. That means that neither club is in the clear. It means that the two clubs have two prodigious competitors, neither of whom, one presumes, would turn down a chance to help his club in one or both of the remaining games, even at the risk of being overworked. Williams, the Guardians' best pitcher this season, has been exactly what Vogt has sought, namely, an indefatigable workhorse, ready and willing to work as long and as hard as it might require to secure a victory. Skubal came out of the chute blazing Tuesday. His fastball was clocked at just over 100 mph in the first inning. Williams doesn't have quite that kind of velocity in his repertoire, but that doesn't mean it's a day off for opposing hitters. Both pitchers are exactly the kind of blazing competitors that major league teams covet. Especially at this time of year, when virtually every game is important and both teams know it. Certainly going into what is a must-win game demands the kind of repertoires Williams and Skubal feature. If it's late in a game, with the score tied, and Williams and Skubal are pawing the ground, hoping to enter the fray, how much self-control would Vogt and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch exhibit? Skubal and Williams are high-octane performers, with demonstrably deep reservoirs of competitiveness. Who knows what the landscape will look like late in the game today? If it's a game of chicken, which manager blinks? That's baseball, and that is especially baseball deep in the heart of the sport's fiercest competitors. So much so that it seems reasonable to assume that either manager might, indeed, trot out his ace if the circumstances call for it. That is baseball at its best. Contact Jim Ingraham at (440) 329-7135 or jingraham4@gmail.com.