CLEVELAND — The Detroit Tigers have leaned on Tarik Skubal all year. On Tuesday, their ace will take the ball for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Progressive Field , a ballpark that has tested him in both triumph and heartbreak.

The Tigers are back in the postseason for the second straight year as the No. 6 seed . The opponent is familiar: The Guardians erased a 15.5-game deficit to surge past the Tigers in September and claim the AL Central crown, completing the largest divisional comeback in MLB history.

But the slate is clean for the postseason and there’s no one the Tigers would rather have in Game 1 than Skubal, who is likely to win his second consecutive Cy Young after another brilliant season.

His last postseason outing on this mound came in Game 5 of last year’s Division

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