Ryan Ford

Detroit

Deputy Sports Editor at Detroit Free Press

Former Freep designer, now deputy editor for @freepsports. 2021 NSMA Michigan Sportswriter of the Year. Proud Cat Dad, Wazzu alum. (Go Cougs, right meow.)

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Articles

Tarik Skubal's 2025 MLB All-Star Game bid: Ace reaching heights not seen since 1875

1 week ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

Tarik Skubal is having a historic season, potentially rivaling a record set in 1875. The Baseball Gods — after a decade or so of, at best, gruesome negligence (and, at worst, deliberate diamond decimation) — have been kind to Detroit Tigers fans lately. We (hopefully) don’t have to recap the past few months — you remember. So perhaps asking for anything more could be risking a smiting from said gods, at least before the postseason rolls around (again).
Meet the Detroit Tigers' All-21st Century Team (so far)

1 month ago | usatoday.com | Ryan Ford

You never know when history is going to strike at a Detroit Tigers game. Well, let’s walk that back a bit … if Tarik Skubal is on the mound, you have to at least be on the lookout for history. And, of course, the Tigers ace didn’t disappoint on Sunday, May 25, with his first career MLB shutout (not to mention his first complete game in ) … complete with a historic punctuation mark. His first “Maddux” (a complete-game shutout with fewer than 100 pitches).
Meet the Detroit Tigers' All-21st Century Team (so far): Who is the ace?

1 month ago | usatoday.com | Ryan Ford

You never know when history is going to strike at a Detroit Tigers game. Well, let’s walk that back a bit … if Tarik Skubal is on the mound, you have to at least be on the lookout for history. And, of course, the Tigers ace didn’t disappoint on Sunday, May 25, with his first career MLB shutout (not to mention his first complete game in ) … complete with a historic punctuation mark. His first “Maddux” (a complete-game shutout with fewer than 100 pitches).
Detroit Tigers are first to 30 wins in MLB. That may not be a good thing

1 month ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

The Detroit Tigers are 31-16, on pace to break the franchise record for wins in a season. Over the past two decades, being MLB's first team to 30 wins doesn't guarantee a World Series title. The Tigers' run differential of plus-87 suggests they are contenders. It’s so easy to forget that every Detroit Tigers season is, to borrow the phrase, a marathon, not a sprint.
Detroit Tigers' one that got away, Alex Bregman, is back in town. Time to boo?

1 month ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

Alex Bregman, who signed with the Red Sox after reportedly turning down a larger offer from the Tigers, will face Detroit for the first time since choosing Boston. Bregman has opt-outs in his contract, leaving the possibility of him coming to Detroit in the future.
How many Detroit Tigers could be headed to 2025 MLB All-Star Game?

1 month ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

How do we measure team success in MLB? Put another way … how can we tell just how good these Detroit Tigers are? Wins and losses? That’s one way: The Tigers’ four-game series win this weekend against the Angels put them at 22-13, tops in the American League … but only tied for third in the majors (with the Giants at 22-13 and behind the Padres at 22-11 and the Dodgers at 23-11). Run differential?
Another Cy Young for Tigers' Tarik Skubal? Ranking the AL's early contenders

2 months ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

Skubal has allowed only two earned runs in his last four starts, totaling 24 innings. Skubal currently ranks first in our 2025 Cy Young power rankings. After everything that Tarik Skubal did last season — leading the American League in ERA, strikeouts and wins, getting the Detroit Tigers back to the postseason for the first time in a decade and, of course, winning the AL Cy Young Award — it’s sometimes hard to not to set unrealistic expectations for the 28-year-old in his sixth MLB season.
Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene on pace for eye-popping numbers — in opposite ways

2 months ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

Ah, mid-April — time for showers, tax-company commercials and, yes, the annual warning across baseball: Small sample sizes may be misleading. Casey Mize, after all, entered Sunday’s start in Minnesota on pace to go 32-0 with 196 strikeouts and a 0.77 ERA this season. A couple rough innings brought those digits down to 22-10, 160 and 2.60. Still good, in a still-a-small-sample-size sort of way, but maybe not enough to pry the AL Cy Young Award from Tarik Skubal.
Purr-fect Game: What 2025 Yankees have in common with 2006 Detroit Tigers

2 months ago | freep.com | Ryan Ford

It’s the torpedo bats, right? Has to be the torpedo bats. That weirdly shaped lumber (designed by a former Michigan professor) is why the New York Yankees, arriving at Comerica Park Monday for a three-game series (albeit one starting a little earlier than planned) against the Detroit Tigers, have crushed 25 homers in their first nine games, right?
This Detroit Tigers Opening Day means so much more to me after a summer in the hospital

Mar 27, 2025 | freep.com | Ryan Ford

Opening Day — that’s today, by the way, with the Detroit Tigers on the road against the L.A. Dodgers — is about hope, and joy, and about things being better than they were the year before. I’m living proof of that.