Tigers ace explains why he wanted catcher to let foul ball drop during teammate's gem

Tarik Skubal revealed to the "Foul Territory" podcast on Thursday that he told catcher Carson Kelly to intentionally let a foul ball drop during teammate Jack Flaherty's gem against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.

The Detroit Tigers' southpaw explained that he wanted Kelly to purposefully allow the ball to fall into the dugout amid Flaherty's record-tying stretch of seven straight strikeouts to open Tuesday's outing.

Flaherty (who spent six-plus seasons with the Cardinals from 2017-23) racked up a career-high 14 strikeouts during the contest.

"There was a point where there was a foul ball that landed in our dugout and Carson (Kelly) is gonna try and catch it over the railing in the dugout and I'm like 'No, drop it. Let it drop. I wanna see how many strikeouts this guy can get in a row before someone puts it in play.' And that was the seventh one, he struck him out like two pitches later," Skubal said. "I'm watching that and I'm like, 'What is going on?' I haven't seen such dominance like that. And them I'm thinking like, 'Ok, is he gonna punch out 20?'"

There have only been four times in MLB history when a pitcher struck out 20 batters.

Seven-time Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens accomplished the feat twice. The "Rocket" first racked up 20 punchouts with the Boston Red Sox against the Seattle Mariners on April 29, 1986 , during his MVP campaign and then during his last season in Boston on Sept. 18, 1996, against the Tigers.

Former Chicago Cubs two-time All-Star Kerry Wood tied the record against the Houston Astros on May 6, 1998 during his NL Rookie of the Year campaign. Three-time Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer joined the 20-strikeout club on May 11, 2016, while with the Washington Nationals, dominating Detroit's bats in a 3-2 victory.

Flaherty's performance came just one day after the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup struck out zero times for the first time since 2006, during an 8-4 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks.