CLEVELAND >> Tarik Skubal’s itching to have another emotional October outburst that makes Tigers fans roar — even if it embarrasses his mom.

Baseball’s premier pitcher all season, the Hayward-born Skubal — a lock to win the AL Cy Young Award — will start Game 5 for Detroit today in a fitting, winner-take-all finale of a seesaw AL Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians.

“I don’t think anybody thought this wasn’t going to go five games,” said first-year Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, who will start Matthew Boyd before unchaining his bullpen. “It’s the way our season’s been. It’s the way their season’s been.”

It will be the second start in this series for Skubal. The lefty pitched seven scoreless innings in Game 2, which the Tigers won 3-0 on Kerry Carpenter’s three-run homer in the ninth inning off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.

While inducing an inning-ending double play in the fifth inning to keep the game scoreless, Skubal didn’t hold back and screamed a profanity toward Cleveland’s raucous crowd as he walked toward Detroit’s dugout.

A national TV audience read his lips. So did those closest to Skubal.

His mother, Laura, didn’t approve of his salty language and posted a message on social media to convey her disappointment.

“Tarik Daniel!!” she wrote, using Skubal’s middle name, a clear indicator that he was in big trouble.

The moment was nothing new for Skubal, who has battled his emotions as an athlete for years and has to learn to channel them in a more positive way.

The Tigers and Guardians were thrown a literal changeup on Friday by MLB, which was concerned about a chance for inclement weather tonight and moved the first pitch from 8:08 p.m. to 1:08 p.m. local time

And while the switch certainly led to fans having to scramble their plans, the move from prime time to lunch time didn’t seem to bother any of the players.

“We’ve had plenty of day games this year,” Cleveland reliever Cade Smith said.

None, though, as big as this one as the Tigers and Guardians try to advance to the ALCS and a matchup against the New York Yankees, who eliminated the Kansas City Royals in four games on Thursday.