The leadoff home run off
Five days after Skubal gave up four runs on seven hits over two innings against the White Sox, he had more trouble early. After the leadoff homer, his two-out walk to Carlos Santana extended the opening inning for right-handed slugger Franmil Reyes. Skubal challenged Reyes with fastballs on the inner half of the plate, fanning him on a 97 mph pitch up and in and setting a theme.\n\nAfter Jordan Luplow doubled off the right-field wall leading off the second inning, Skubal sent down the bottom third of Cleveland’s lineup in order, all swinging at fastballs -- 95 mph at the knees to Domingo Santana, 95 over the plate to Beau Taylor, then 96 off the plate to Greg Allen.\n\n“I just feel like I threw it with more conviction and a little bit more aggressive,” Skubal said. “I didn't try to guide it as much, and that's something I might have fallen into my last start. I just kind of felt that I had a little bit more life on it because I was more aggressive with it.”\n\nSkubal tried hard for another strikeout in the third, battling José Ramírez for a nine-pitch at-bat that included six consecutive foul balls off all four of his pitches. Skubal challenged him with a 96 mph high fastball, but Ramírez hit a hard grounder that bounced off third baseman Isaac Paredes for a one-out single.
“I couldn’t get him to put it in play. And when he did, he hit it really, really hard,” Skubal said. “I made some really good pitches in that sequence. I threw everything I had at him. He kept fouling it off.”\n\nThat, Skubal said, is the biggest adjustment: Good hitters can foul off good pitches. Seventeen of his pitches were fouled off Sunday. It’s the same way the Indians wore down Tigers pitchers in their prior series in Detroit.\n\n \n\n“And then any mistake, I feel like they hit it hard somewhere,” he said. “But for me, I need to be consistent with every pitch and throw every pitch for strikes and be able to locate out of the zone when I need to locate out of the zone.”\n\n \n\nA full-count battle with the next batter, Francisco Lindor, ended when Skubal buried a slider that hit the All-Star shortstop, closing Skubal’s outing at 69 pitches.
Norris ended the threat in three pitches, then delivered three more scoreless innings to earn his second win of the year. For both of them, it was a sign of progress.\n\n“That was the best part of the game really. Our offense came alive after that,” Gardenhire said.\n\nSkubal drew seven swings and misses on 38 fastballs, three more whiffs on the slider and another on his changeup, according to Statcast. He took veteran lefty