Baseball is a mathematical game — and Tarik Skubal just threw what might be the most mathematically incomprehensible game in the long history of baseball. As someone who spends countless hours putting together baseball spreadsheets and pondering the game’s most impossible feats, I’m practically shaking with joy.
See if you can find the pattern for these five numbers: 2, 13, 0, 94, 102.5.
On Sunday against Cleveland, Tarik Skubal:
Threw a two-hit shutout.
Struck out 13 batters.
Didn’t walk anybody.
Finished with a grand total of 94 pitches.
The last of his pitches, the 94th, was clocked at 102.5 mph.
I might not know a lot about baseball — people tell me that every day — but everything I do know about this beautiful game tells me that none of that adds up. None of it. I mean, let’s break it down.
Thirteen strikeouts require 39 pitches, minimum.
The two hits were pitches. So that makes 41.
There were 14 more outs — even with a double play, that still requires 13 more pitches.
The absolute minimum number of pitches someone could throw in a game like this is 54 — and that’s without throwing a single ball, without allowing a two-strike foul ball.
He did it in 94. It’s utterly unheard of.
Fewest pitches on record for a 13-strikeout shutout:
Tarik Skubal, May 25, 2025: 94
Lucas Giolito, Aug. 25, 2020, 101
Clayton Kershaw, May 1, 2016, 101
Greg Maddux, June 27, 1998, 102
Madison Bumgarner, August 26, 2014, 103
And then there was that last pitch, the fastest ever recorded last pitch of a shutout, 102.6 mph, a pitch that Cleveland’s Gabriel Arias swung at roughly 47 minutes after the ball hit the mitt.
For your enjoyment, here is the handbook on how you throw a 94-pitch shutout with 13 strikeouts.
Strikeout, Angel Martínez, 6 pitches (foul tip into the mitt)
Strikeout, Gariel Arias, 3 pitches (swings over a changeup. He won’t be the last.)
Infield pop-up, Jose Ramirez, 1 pitch (99 mph fastball down and in)
(Inning pitches: 10)
Soft comebacker, Lane Thomas, 5 pitches (97 mph fastball way up and in)
Fly ball to center Kyle Manzardo, 1 pitch (96 mph slider)
Flyball to left, Jhonskeny Noel, 1 pitch (low change-up)
(Inning: 7. Total pitches: 17)
Routine fly to right, Will Wilson, 1 pitch (97-mph fastball down the middle)
Strikeout, Austin Hedges, 5 pitches (swings over a changeup. Won’t be the last time for Austin)
Dribbler in front of the plate, Nolan Jones, 2 pitches (absurdly nasty slider)
(Inning: 8. Total: 25)
Strikeout, Martínez, 5 pitches (change-up in the dirt)
Strikeout, Arias, 5 pitches (99 mph fastball over his head).
Hard lineout to center, Ramirez, 2 pitches (Middle middle 98-mph sinker — can’t do that to Ramírez.
(Inning: 12. Total: 37)
Strikeout, Thomas, 6 pitches (Thomas put up a fight, but couldn’t catch up to the 99-mph fastball)
Fly ball to center, Manzardo, 6 pitches (a mistake sinker, but Manzardo didn’t quite get it).
Grounder to third, Noel, 2 pitches (fastball WAY in)
(Inning: 13. Total: 50)
Double, Wilson, 3 pitches (middle-middle sinker, nobody’s perfect)
Strikeout, Hedges, 4 pitches (change-up again)
Hit by pitch, Jones, 1 pitch (obviously he did not mean to hit Jones but …)
Double play, 6-4-3, Martínez, 1 pitch (98-mph sinker)
(Inning: 9. Total: 59)
Infield pop-up, Arias, 2 pitches (change-up)
Single, Ramírez, 2 pitches (good change-up, sometimes you just have to tip your cap)
Strikeout looking, Thomas, 5 pitches (change-up)
Strikeout looking, Manzardo, 4 pitches (102-mph blazer)
(Inning: 13. Total: 72)
Strikeout, Noel, 4 pitches (knuckle curveball in the dirt … because he hasn’t struck anybody out on a knuckle curve yet)
Groundout to second, Wilson, 5 pitches (change-up)
Strikeout, Hedges, 5 pitches (change-up for the third time)
(Inning: 14. Total: 86)
Strikeout, Jones, 4 pitches (change-up)
Groundout to third, Martínez, 1 pitch (98 mph slider)
Strikeout, Arias, 3 pitches (100-mph sinker, 90-mph change-up, 102.6 mph four-seam fastball).
(inning 8. Total: 94 pitches)
You only needed to see that last at-bat to understand we’re watching someone we will be talking about for many years. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: For those of us too young to have seen Sandy Koufax … we now have our Sandy Koufax.
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