Tarik Skubal apologizes to Zach Neto after yelling at him, a breakdown
What Happened
In the top of the first inning, Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal (a 2018 fifth-round draft pick) faces off against Los Angeles Angels rookie Zach Neto (the 13th overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft). Neto steps up to the plate and on the very first pitch, Skubal unleashes a fastball that nearly hits the waterfall beyond the outfield wall. Neto calmly rounds the bases, pausing to make a phone gesture and high-five the third base coach, before crossing home plate for an early solo home run. As Neto celebrates with his teammates, the fiery Skubal appears visibly frustrated on the mound. In the bottom of the third inning, with a runner on third base and one out, Skubal faces Neto again. Determined not to give up another homer, Skubal mixes in offspeed pitches, eventually striking Neto out on a high fastball. Skubal then stares down Neto, telling him to "go sit down." Neto responds, saying "Got me one time. You got me one time. I can do that to you," implying he got the better of Skubal earlier. This ignites Skubal, who starts shouting and gesturing angrily. The benches and bullpens begin to clear as tensions escalate, with one player even hopping the fence to join the fray before being stopped by the umpires. Cooler heads eventually prevail, and Skubal approaches Neto, apologizing and saying "My bad, man. My bad." Neto simply replies "Yep. Okay. All good." Both players acknowledge it was just an emotional moment between two competitive athletes, and the umpires issue warnings to both teams before play resumes. In the postgame interviews, the players and coaches downplay the incident, chalking it up to the natural heat of the rivalry and the passion of the game. While the benches cleared, ultimately it was "nothing" more than two players exchanging words before making amends, a common occurrence in the intense world of Major League Baseball.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentBenches clear, dugouts empty, words
exchanged, heated moment. This
breakdown's brought to you by Draft
Kings. Zack Netto versus TK Scoo. Sai
Young winner. Zack Neto up. It's the
first pitch of the game for Scooball.
Just a fast ball right there and right
out of there. Almost into the waterfall.
Hits the greenery. He's going to round
first. Gives a high five. Then he's
going to go 303. That's where he's from.
Round second. And then I think he's
going to do a quick phone call. Hang
loose. Whatever that is. And then hits
up third base coach. Does that over
there? He's round in third. He's heading
home. Simple high five there. Skips.
What a way to start the game. Lefty high
five. Helmet off. New helmet on. We got
a lot of stuff. High fiveives. High
five. High fives. High fives. High
fives. High five. High five. High. And
then say what up to the bullpen. Yo yo
yo yo yo. And yeah, so that's everything
he does. Just looked like he was sad
that he had to hit this ball. Like, oh,
here's a Oh,
no.
No, not a homer. Oh,
no. So sad about it. Not sure why. Kind
of just his face. Anyway, he comes up in
the third inning and now there's a
runner on third. The infield is in to
cut off that run. And there's one out.
And Scooball is pissed because he hit he
hit a homer on the fast ball. So he
says, "All right, I can't give him the
fast ball again." Little change up
there. 89 miles per hour. And then he's
going to stay secondary pitches and goes
slider there. No bite to it. He's going
to come back to the change up and get
strike two. And he says, "Now I've
slowed you down and I got two strikes."
Yeah. We're going to speed you up up top
with the fast ball. Bam. And then stares
him down a little bit. Says, "Go sit
down now." Yeah. Yeah. And Neto says,
"Got me one time. You got me one
time. I can do that to you." Yeah.
Now, my first instinct was that he's
saying, "Got me one time." But I want
you guys to let me know because I also
see sometimes when I watch it, I put one
up
top. I put one up top. Meaning I
homerred off you and I can do that
to you. So what do you see? What do you
guys see? Do you see got me one time or
I put you up top? I see both, but I
really see uh got me one time more. got
me one
time. I can do that to you. And TKO
is like a hothead crazy competitor. Like
he's just John and yelling and then he
looks around and he's like, "Oh, this is
bigger than what I thought it was going
to be." Cuz now Neto's like, "What,
dude? What?" And he's like, "Oh, what
dude? What? What, dude? What?" And the
bullpens were like, "Oh yeah, one guy
hops the fence, jumps over ahead of the
whole team, starts running. He's going
to beat them all. He's gonna run and
Scoo's like, "Ah, man. Damn. All
right. Well, I got myself in trouble
here. Didn't mean for all that." They
get stopped before they even get to the
infield. They're like, "Guys, go back.
Go back. This is nothing." The umpires
get together and they're like, "We got
to warn everyone, right? I mean, I guess
so." And the good ending here is that
Neto's sitting there looking out and
Scooville looks back at him and he just
says, "My bad, man. My bad." And Neto
says, "Yep. Okay. All good. All good."
He says, "Yep, that's my bad. I just got
hot. Sometimes athletes just get hot.
Both of their post games were like, "Yo,
two guys enjoying the moment,
celebrating, getting hot. It's nothing."
And uh truly is nothing. Ridiculous that
bench is cleared and bullpens. But other
than that, I think it's fine. Just
chatting, having a little go. Get hot in
the moment and then be like, "Sorry,
man. I got hot." That is all good and
well. Thank you to DraftKings for
sponsoring this breakdown. And thank you
to you guys for watching it. And thank
you to me for making it. Two thumbs up.