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.

However, Skubal's dominant outing still wasn't enough for the Tigers to reach the ALCS. The Mariners eventually came away with a 3-2 win in a 15-inning battle that will go down as an instant playoff classic.

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.

"If you're not a fan of the Tigers and you haven't watched Tarik Skubal start after start after start, you're going to see why he gets the love he does, because he's incredible," Tigers manager AJ Hinch told Tony Paul of The Detroit News.

"He's an emotional leader. He's someone who brings it on the field. You see it every five or six days. And we've asked a lot out of him this season, but specifically the postseason."

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.

Jorge Polanco eventually hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 15th to send Seattle to its first ALCS since 2001.