Tarik Skubal shares honest thoughts about Devin Booker’s surprise gesture for him and Tigers teammates Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres

Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has been red-hot this season. After a record-setting 2024 season in which he won the American League Cy Young award, the lefty hurler has continued his dominant run of form by leading the league with the most wins, along with Max Fried at 10.

Skubal met up with NBA and Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker. Booker, who has his own signature shoe produced by Nike, linked up with the hurler, Javier Baez, and Gleyber Torres for a memorable collab. With him being on fire throughout this campaign, Skubal shared his thoughts about the gift from Booker.

"Those cleats 🔥," commented Skubal.

"Those cleats 🔥" - Tarik Skubal (@tigers/Instagram)

Booker gave Skubal the orange colorway cleats, while Baez was gifted khaki and Torres with the light cyan, respectively.

The lefty ace, along with his teammates, became the first official endorsers of the "Book" line of shoes in MLB. Primarily used as a basketball shoe, the design was modified and fused with the Nike Alpha Huarache Elite Low 4 baseball cleats for turf duty.

As a sign of gratitude for the collaboration, Tarik Skubal gave a signed glove to Booker.

Tigers ace Tarik Skubal plays mind games with Byron Buxton

During Sunday afternoon's contest between the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins, ace Tarik Skubal and Byron Buxton had an interesting interaction in the very first at-bat of the game.

Known for throwing a blinding fastball, Skubal carried a 119-game streak of throwing fastballs for his first pitch of the game. On the other hand, Buxton tops the charts for all leadoff batters for swinging on the first ball he sees at a staggering 60% of the time.

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As the two forces collided, neither came out the better as Skubal ended his streak and opted for a changeup. Likewise, Buxton lowered his swing rate as he chose to watch the ball instead of swinging. The interaction drew cackles from the commentary team, who were eagerly awaiting the matchup.

Skubal got the last laugh in the contest though, as he struck out Buxton, along with 12 other Twins batters, as the former tied his career-high for punch-outs in a game with 13. The Cy Young winner would surrender just one base hit in seven innings as Detroit dominated Minnesota, 3-0.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago