Skubal Ks 13 over 6 IP in record Game 5 performance

Tarik Skubal put the Detroit Tigers on his back in Game 5 of the ALDS.

The reigning AL Cy Young winner turned in a performance for the ages with his team's season on the line, striking out 13 with no walks and just two hits over six innings Friday against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

Skubal's 13 strikeouts are a new playoff record in a sudden-death game. He's also the first pitcher to ever have two 13-strikeout games in the same postseason, per OptaStats. He struck out 14 in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series against the Cleveland Guardians.

The 28-year-old recorded 10 strikeouts through four innings, making him the first pitcher to ever do that in a playoff game, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com. He also entered the record books with a string of seven straight strikeouts, breaking the previous October mark of six that had been done nine times.

He finished with a flourish, getting Cal Raleigh swinging at a 101-mph fastball.

It was Skubal's seventh strikeout with a pitch of 100 mph or higher this postseason, the most by a starting pitcher during the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), per Langs.

Skubal was lifted for Kyle Finnegan in the bottom of the seventh after throwing 99 pitches with the Tigers ahead 2-1. But the bullpen couldn't secure him a win: Finnegan allowed the tying run to reach base before pinch hitter Leo Rivas ripped an RBI single off Tyler Holton to knot Game 5 at 2-2.