CLEVELAND — (AP) — Tarik Skubal’s itching to have another emotional October outburst that makes Tigers fans roar — even if it embarrasses his mom.
Baseball’s premier pitcher all season, the heat-throwing Skubal — a lock to win the AL Cy Young Award — will start Game 5 for Detroit on Saturday in a fitting, winner-take-all finale of a seesaw AL Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians.
This backyard brawl is going the distance.
“I don’t think anybody thought this wasn’t going to go five games,” said first-year Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who will start Matthew Boyd before unchaining his bullpen. “It’s the way our season’s been. It’s the way their season’s been.”
It will be the second start in this series for Skubal, who pitched seven scoreless innings in Game 2, which the Tigers won 3-0 on Kerry Carpenter’s three-run homer in the ninth inning off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.
While inducing an inning-ending double play in the fifth inning to keep the …