Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal pumped a 99 mph fastball — his 98th and final pitch Saturday night — past Boston Red Sox rookie Ceddanne Rafaela for an inning-ending whiff, the icing on the cake in his first-ever taste of the eighth inning in the majors.

Skubal roared in celebration.

The best pitcher in baseball raised his arms and pounded his fist into his glove as he backpedaled off the mound to the tune of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," while a crowd of 34,355 fans at Comerica Park showed love to their ace with a standing ovation.

"Come on!" Skubal exclaimed.

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Skubal, 27, put the Tigers on his back en route to a 2-1 win in Saturday's clash with the Red Sox, firing eight innings of one-run ball, on four hits and no walks with eight strikeouts. After 27 starts, Skubal leads MLB — not just the American League — in all three categories for the pitching Triple Crown: wins (16), ERA (2.51) and strikeouts (201).

"He's probably the best pitcher in the American League right now," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters after Skubal's dominance. "This guy, we saw him in spring training, and we knew he was going to have a big year, and that was a statement game for him. He should probably win the Cy Young."

Probably?

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Five pitchers in a full season since 2000 have won Triple Crowns in their respective leagues in a full season: the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson in 2002, the Twins' Johan Santana in 2006, the Padres' Jake Peavy in 2007, the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw in 2011 and the Tigers' Justin Verlander in 2011.

Only two, though, since 1966 (when Sandy Koufax did it for the second straight season) have won a Triple Crown across MLB in a full season: Santana in 2006 and the Mets' Dwight Gooden in 1985. That means Skubal is on track to become the third pitcher to do so in the span of nearly 60 years.

Take it to the bank: Skubal is going to win the AL Cy Young Award in 2024.

"He's great," said Jake Rogers, the catcher for each of Skubal's 27 starts this season. "Team by team, they come into town and say how good he is. He has the absolute confidence to throw it over the plate and tell them, here it is. It's fun to catch."

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Skubal still has about four starts remaining, but barring an unforeseen collapse in performance, the All-Star southpaw nicknamed "Skub" will become the first Tiger to win the Cy Young since Max Scherzer in 2013. Before "Mad Max," it was Verlander in 2011. And before JV, it was Guillermo "Willie" Hernández in 1984.

Oh, and 1984? The Tigers honored that season's World Series championship team before Saturday's game against the Red Sox. The pregame celebration created the perfect atmosphere for a career-best eight-inning gem from Skubal.

"We should have them back every game," Skubal said.

"It was a great environment," Skubal continued. "The fans were great."

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Skubal made history of his own in the sixth inning when he struck out Tyler O'Neill swinging with a trademark changeup for his 200th strikeout of the season. He reached 200 strikeouts faster than any other pitcher in the 2024 campaign.

After the strikeout, Skubal used his left hand to indicate he wanted to keep the milestone baseball, but it had already been thrown into the stands. Matt Vierling apparently retrieved the ball from a fan in exchange for a different ball.

There was a ball in Skubal's locker after Saturday's game, but it had not been authenticated.

"I got tagged on something on Instagram," Skubal said, "and that's how I saw I was at 193, so I knew I needed seven. That's probably why there was a little bit more fire behind that in the sixth inning in a situation that wasn't big."

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Skubal is the 12th pitcher in Tigers history with 200 strikeouts in a single season — covering 31 total seasons — as he joins Verlander (six times), Scherzer (three times), Hal Newhouser (twice), Jim Bunning (twice), Mickey Lolich (seven times), Denny McLain, Joe Coleman (three times), Jack Morris (three times), Jeremy Bonderman, Aníbal Sánchez and Matthew Boyd.

He is one of four left-handers on the exclusive list, along with Newhouser, Lolich and Boyd.

"He's continued to do his work," Hinch said of Skubal. "I get to see everything. I don't just get to see the eight innings tonight, or the seven innings routinely, or the dominance, the strikeouts, the low hits, the low walks, the low ERA. I get to see it all. I soak it in every day."

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The fans offered a standing ovation to Skubal after the seventh inning, but with only 84 pitches in a one-run game while competing on six days rest, Hinch decided not to give Skubal the end-of-start handshake. The skipper instead gave a fist bump, signaling the ace would take the mound for the eighth inning for the first time in his 102-game career, spanning five seasons.

"They were giving him the standing ovation," Hinch said, "and I'm like, 'No, no, no, you're going to go out again.' He went and got his outs. He knew after eight he was done because he knew what I was going to do in the eighth."

Skubal is passionate about pitching deep into games.

He finally got the opportunity Saturday night.

The king of the Tigers — vying for MLB's pitching Triple Crown, as well as the AL Cy Young — put an exclamation on a career-best eight-inning masterpiece with one of his fastest pitches of the game, striking out Rafaela.

"I kind of pitch like that from pitch one," Skubal said. "I'm pretty much emptying the tank from pitch one. There's not much saving. I don't really want to save a pitch. What good does it do to save your best bullet if you're already down 4-0? I do it from pitch one. That's just how I pitch."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal passes a milestone in Cy Young chase