CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The first thing Tarik Skubal did when he heard that Matthew Boyd had signed with the Guardians at the end of June was send him a text message. The message said, “Traitor’ because Boyd had signed with another AL Central team.

All those hours and days of working in the weight room, working with trainers to come back from Tommy John surgery when his body screamed “stop!” but his mind said “Keep going!” are about to pay

CLEVELAND — On his way to becoming one of baseball's best pitchers, Detroit's unquestioned ace and the AL's next Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal crossed paths with a veteran pitcher — another lefty — who took him under his wing. On Monday, Skubal will intersect with Matthew Boyd again.