Tarik Skubal Got Into a Shouting Match With a White Sox Player. His Manager Loved It.

Tarik Skubal was back on the mound Friday for the first time in a while, and he didn’t just throw strikes. He threw some words too.

The Detroit Tigers ace got into a heated exchange with someone in the Chicago White Sox dugout during a game that Detroit eventually won 4-3. It wasn’t a quick “hey, what’s up” kind of thing. This was actual jawing, the kind that makes you wonder if somebody’s about to get ejected.

Turns out, the guy on the other end of it was White Sox pitcher Mike Vasil.

“I think it was some pretty choice words,” Vasil told reporters. “And then I shared back some choice words. It was good stuff.”

Skubal didn’t exactly back away from any of it. He’s never been shy about letting the emotion show, and that’s exactly what he did here.

“I’m a competitive guy,” Skubal said. “I kind of wear my emotions out there, and that’s part of how I play the game. I think that’s just baseball. … It is what it is. It happened. It’s over with.”

And his manager, A.J. Hinch, wasn’t about to tell him to calm down.

“We know where we’re at, and what that brings is a ton of emotion in itself,” Hinch said. “Usually, you can multiply it with Tarik.”

Back on the mound after elbow surgery

Skubal’s return itself is kind of a story. He had surgery on his elbow a few weeks ago, and the timeline for getting back has been surprisingly fast. The guy worked his way back from a pretty significant injury quicker than most people expected.

And on top of all that, his name has been floating around in trade rumors for months. Every contender that needs a pitcher apparently has the Tigers on speed dial, asking about Skubal.

Friday’s outing wasn’t perfect. He threw five-plus innings, struck out eight, but admitted he ran out of gas toward the end. Which, honestly, is kind of the point right now.

“I felt like this was the first start that I’ve had this year where I felt like I kind of ran out of gas a little bit late in the game,” Skubal said. “And that’s good. I think that’s great for me in terms of building my volume to where, a couple starts from now, I feel like I’m healthy and ready to go.”

The Tigers won that Friday game 4-3, then came back Saturday and took another one from Chicago, 4-1. Detroit is sitting at 32-44 on the season, which is not great. But watching Skubal pitch with that kind of fire, even in a lost season, is something else.