DETROIT, July 30 -- The first pitch of the night ended it all and started everything at once. Taylor Ward stepped in, Tarik Skubal wound up, and the resulting strikeout was the 1,000th of his major league career, recorded before a single ball had been called, before anyone at Comerica Park had time to process what they were watching.

He got there faster than Max Scherzer did, reaching the milestone in 857 innings compared to the Hall of Famer's 944 and two-thirds. He did it at 28, with back-to-back American League Cy Young Awards already on the shelf, and he did it in front of a hometown crowd that almost certainly knows it is running out of chances to watch him do anything in Detroit.

The Tigers lost to Baltimore 10-9 in 12 innings Tue...