Tarik Skubal is set to pitch at Fenway Park on Saturday, and the Tigers ace said he plans to enjoy every minute of it. The back-to-back Cy Young Award winner, who first visited the ballpark with Detroit in 2021, called that first trip “awesome” and said he loves every cramped nook of the place.
He has not had much success there. Skubal has pitched at Fenway Park just twice in his big league career and is 0-2 with 11 runs allowed, 10 earned, in 10 innings there, but he said he is going to enjoy his outing on Saturday and be part of history at the park.
That outlook fits the moment around him. Skubal is 2-2 with a 2.22 ERA in four starts this year, and with free agency due at year’s end, Saturday is one more chance for the left-hander to do what he keeps saying matters most: win now and let the rest wait.
“I won’t really think about next year until this year’s over,” Skubal said, adding that he hopes the Tigers are playing deep into October and that he can worry about decisions after that. “I’m just trying to win,” he said. “That’s what really matters at the end.”
For Boston, the assignment comes with its own pressure. Alex Cora reconfigured the lineup on Friday and kept Roman Anthony in the leadoff spot, moved Willson Contreras up to No. 2 after he sat Wednesday with back stiffness, put Wilyer Abreu third and Trevor Story fourth, and left Carlos Narváez out for the second straight game. Narváez was hitting.195/.214/.195 with no extra-base hits, 14 strikeouts and one walk.
The Red Sox are also managing the edges of a battered roster. Justin Slaten might begin throwing this weekend for the first time since landing on the injured list on April 8 with a right oblique strain, Kutter Crawford may need an MRI after forearm discomfort following his rehab outing last Saturday, and Romy Gonzalez has started taking ground balls while coming back from left shoulder surgery. Cora summed up the approach simply: “Let’s put them all together and keep rolling,” he said.
So Saturday brings more than another regular-season start in a park Skubal has already made part of his personal baseball map. It brings a free agent at year’s end, a division opponent trying to stabilize around injuries and lineup shuffling, and a pitcher who knows Fenway well enough to respect its history without letting it slow him down.