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Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal climbed the steps to the dugout, took off his hat and raised his prized left arm. Then he switched his hat from his left to his right hand and raised his less important right arm. Finally, Skubal pounded his chest and clenched his fist.

He did this to acknowledge the fans at Comerica Park.

They cheered on Skubal after Sunday's 9-5 loss in the regular-season finale, as the Tigers' ace officially won the American League pitching Triple Crown by leading the league with 18 wins, a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts . It's far from official that he will also win the AL Cy Young Award.

“It’s pretty special,” Skubal told Bally Sports Detroit after Sunday’s game. “It will probably hit me when our season is over. It's probably going to affect me a little bit more than it does now just because the work isn't done for us yet. That's where I'm at, but if you ask me when our season is over, it'll probably be a different answer.

“He was our starter and he was our guy,” manager AJ Hinch said Monday, a day before the 2024 MLB playoffs. “He was able to grow in the national spotlight and still be the same person behind the scenes with the same work ethic and the same be routine. That's one of the understatements of his year, how good he was for a team that really needed exposure.” Along the way, he was simply the best pitcher in baseball.

MORE ABOUT HIM: How the Tigers' Tarik Skubal blossomed into an opening ace with Cy Young potential

Skubal, a ninth-round pick out of Seattle University in the 2018 draft, became the first pitcher to win the Triple Crown in a full season since 2011, when Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw both won their respective league's Triple Crown.

Three Tigers pitchers have won the AL Pitching Triple Crown: Hal Newhouser (1945), Verlander and Skubal.

If the Tigers had needed him, Skubal would have played in Sunday's regular-season finale, but after clinching a playoff spot with a 4-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday, the Tigers committed to the first Postseason game on Skubal.

(MUST LISTEN: Tigers-Astros series preview. Make Days of Roar your favorite Detroit Tigers podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify).

The Tigers named Skubal as the Game 1 starter for Tuesday's AL wild-card series opener against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston, where he will face Astros left-hander Framber Valdez.

“Perhaps the easiest decision of my tenure here,” Hinch said.

Six pitchers have won Triple Crowns in a full season in their respective leagues since 2000: Randy Johnson in 2002, Johan Santana in 2006, Jake Peavy in 2007, Kershaw and Verlander in 2011 and Skubal in 2024. Shane Bieber won them in the shortened 2020 season.

A total of 30 Triple Crowns have been won by 21 pitchers since earned runs became official in both leagues in 1913.

“When you see special seasons like this, the hardest thing is to put it in context when you watch it,” Hinch said. “Think about Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown, how incredible that was. Now look at it from the perspective of his entire career and we have a whole new perspective. We'll look at Tarik's year very differently in five or ten years.” Now that list is still short. … He should get the national attention he's about to get because of the dominant season he had in all categories, including the Triple Crown.

Contact or follow Evan Petzold at [email protected] @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show, Days of Roar, on-demand every Monday afternoon on freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And check out all of our podcasts and daily voice briefings at freep.com/podcasts.

On By John Fenwick

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