Twins unleash massive troll on Tigers after chasing Tarik Skubal

The Detroit Tigers lost to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night. To make matters worse, the Twins trolled Detroit’s ace Tarik Skubal pretty hard, posting the following on social media after Skubal got knocked out of the game.

Ouch.

Everything was going decently for Skubal as he made it through the first four innings without giving up any runs, but things went sideways in the fifth. A couple of uncharacteristic walks from Skubal followed by a single and two doubles broke the game wide open and the Twins were up 4-0. Minnesota held on to win the game 4-2.

Twins roast Tigers and Tarik Skubal after rare bad outing

Skubal was out-dueled by Twins starter Taj Bradley, who went 6 and 1/3 innings while allowing just one run and striking out 10 batters. 

It’s a pretty brutal burn from Twins social media, and a bold one at that. The Twins won just 70 games last season, and while they are 5-6 this year compared to the 4-7 Tigers, most analysts believe the Tigers will end the season with the upper hand. Maybe it’s just a case in Minnesota trying to get its kicks in while they still can.

It’s still got to be frustrating for Skubal, though. He’s now 1-2 on the season, and while Tuesday’s start is the only one that could be considered a “bad” start by his standards, Detroit’s offense has not done him any favors as of late.

Skubal pitched seven great innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks in his previous start, allowing just one run. Yet, he still took the loss in that effort thanks to the Tigers getting blanked on the scoreboard.

That’s unusual for Skubal. Last season the Tigers got him over four runs of support on average for the season, so he typically has the bats show up for him. Maybe now that he’s the two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, the Tigers feel like they can take a bit of a breather during his starts (even though they shouldn't).

Right now, the Tigers are squarely in the middle of the pack among teams in term of runs scored. They rank 15th with 47 runs scored, which seems about right. Heading into the season, the elevator pitch for Detroit being a contender was decent offense, great pitching. That sort of formula can usually work over the course of a full season but there will be stretches when the pitching is not perfect and the bats go cold and the team loses games as a result, so there is cause for concern.

It may not have been a pitching duel on Tuesday night, but expect Skubal to bring his best stuff the next time he faces Minnesota to try to make up for his lackluster performance.