Less than two months ago, Tarik Skubal was considered by many to be the biggest chip on the market at the Trade Deadline.

Flash forward to today, and Skubal is pitching the Tigers into the playoffs in the best pitching seasons Detriot has seen since the Justin Verlander/Max Scherzer era.

In the biggest start of his life, Skubal fired seven shutout innings against the Rays to lift the Tigers to a 2-0 win and push Detriot further into Wild Card position.

“This is why you play the game, to play in moments like this,” Skubal said. “It’s a ton of fun.”

With the win, the Tigers now sit at 84-70, second in the AL Wild Card race, and two games up on the Twins who are on the outside looking in.

Improbably, the Tigers were just 61-65 back on August 20th and sat 9 games back of the final AL Wild Card Spot.

Since then, Detroit has gone 23-9 and has more than a 60% chance of making the postseason for the first time since 2014.

Looking for a reason why Detroit has gone on a run such as this, look no further than their big lefty.

During the Tigers 23-9 stretch, Tarik Skubal has gone 4-0 with an ERA of just 1.96 in 36.2 innings,

The run by Skubal is just a microscope view of the bigger picture that now has him as the hands-down AL CY Young favorite.

With 31 starts under his belt this season, Skubal has gone 18-4 with an ERA of just 2.39 and a WHIP of 0.922.

Soon, one of the best pitchers in all of baseball will be pitching in October in a Detroit Tigers uniform, something that very few around baseball expected to see in 2024.