Tigers ace and American League Cy Young Award front-runner Tarik Skubal rarely gives up the long ball.
As he made his 26th start of the season Monday night, the Athletics' stadium production crew thought their team accomplished the rare feat. He let up a long fly ball to A's catcher Shea Langeliers that hooked outside of the left-field foul pole.
Unfortunately for the staff at the A's temporary home of Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif., someone thought the ball was fair. The lights flashed off and on to celebrate what was thought a home run, but was just a long foul ball.
Skubal ended up striking out Langeliers and he apparently took exception to the unwarranted light show as he walked back to the dugout. The dominant lefthander struck out seven batters over his first three innings and let the road crowd know about it, sarcastically motioning to play the lights again:
The A's mistakenly started playing their home run light show on a foul ball given up by Tarik Skubal
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 26, 2025
He motioned for them to play it again after striking out his seventh batter of the first three innings pic.twitter.com/1hpJMfQmEG
Last season's AL Cy Young Award winner is 11-3 this season with a 2.32 ERA—second across the MLB trailing only Pirates star Paul Skenes (2.07). Skubal had 200 strikeouts on the year as he went to the mound Monday night and he's only adding to that total, and he's doing so in quite entertaining fashion.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tarik Skubal Perfectly Trolled A's After HR Lights Mistakenly Played on Foul Ball.
