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- In his first game back in Detroit, Tarik Skubal gives up four hits and one run over six innings in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Tigers.
- Freddie Freeman drives in Teoscar Hernández on a single to center field in the eighth inning for the go-ahead run.
- The win ended a three-game losing streak for a Dodgers team that has the second-best record in the majors.
DETROIT — As Tarik Skubal crossed the field from the bullpen, he had to crane his neck to catch part of the tribute video playing on the massive screen behind him.
By the time he reached the Dodgers dugout, the crowd rose to give him an ovation. Skubal controlled his expression and wiped his face with the towel draped over his neck.
“There were definitely tears,” Skubal said after the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Friday. “Luckily enough, I was able to make it to the tunnel before more happened. But yeah, it’s tough. This is a place I’ve known my entire career, since 2018.”
Less than four weeks ago, he said goodbye to the only organization he’d known — the Tigers drafted him in 2018 out of Seattle University. Now, he was back in the ballpark he’d called home for six years.
Clad in road grays, Skubal showed why he was widely considered the best player available at the trade deadline, holding the Tigers to one run and four hits over six innings. The Dodgers’ offense continued to struggle but did just enough to bounce back from a three-game sweep in Atlanta — the 14th time this month they played a game decided by a single run.
Shohei Ohtani threw about 20 pitches in the side session, which Dodgers manager Dave Roberts noted was “short,” but he said he had no expectation for a pitch count.
“I think he embraced it,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “He left everything he had for this organization, multiple Cy Youngs, he left it all for them. I think that’s why he got so many cheers. I’m sure during the game they weren’t too thrilled with all the strikeouts he was racking up, but it’s hard to boo a man who gave you everything he had every five days.”
Skubal’s reception included some boos (and “Scuuuub”s) as he took the mound. Even though the trade was out of Skubal’s control, a faction of the Tigers fan base — including this reporter’s rideshare driver from the airport — was upset Skubal never reached an agreement for a contract extension with Detroit (62-72).
The Tigers’ last publicly discussed extension offer was four years and $75 million at the end of 2024 — which drastically pales in comparison to the contract he’s expected to garner in free agency this offseason.
“With the last name Skub, you don’t know if they are boos or if they’re cheering for you,” Skubal said. “So I’m going to assume they were cheering for me.”
Even if that wasn’t true in every case, the mutual affection between the player and Detroit took center stage Friday, even as Skubal tamed the Tigers’ offense, recording seven strikeouts in the process.
The Dodgers have struggled at times since the All-Star break, but Will Smith’s return from injury and Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching should help.
“I said I wasn’t going to be [emotional], but I’ve come to figure out I don’t really know myself that well,” Skubal said of the video tribute. “The timing kind of threw me for a loop a little bit. But I think the emotions would’ve been the same regardless of the time.”
He quickly reined in his emotions. After a delay for a PitchCom malfunction, Skubal gave up a leadoff double to Detroit’s Gleyber Torres on a fastball down the middle. But then the left-hander retired the next 12 batters.
Skubal struck out the side in the third inning, getting Max Clark to swing through a changeup, Javier Báez to chase a high fastball and Torres to watch an off-speed pitch clip the bottom of the zone.
“From the get-go, his fastball command set up a lot of his pitches,” catcher Hunter Feduccia said. “Establishing inside to righties and running the sinker in to lefties kind of opens up a lot. So that was kind of the game plan coming in; he executed it to a T.”
That streak ended with a double up the left-field line from Eduardo Valencia, who turned on an inside slider to lead off the fifth. Then with two outs, Clark stayed back on an outside fastball and sent it the other way for a triple that drove in the game’s first run.
Skubal, who induced Báez to fly out to center to escape the inning, punched the palm of his glove on his way off the field.
The Dodgers (81-54) missed a chance to tie with one out in the sixth, when Kyle Tucker was thrown out at home trying to score on a pinch-hit single by Kiké Hernández. But they salvaged the inning when Teoscar Hernández drew a walk and Miguel Rojas, also pinch-hitting, smoked a single through the infield to tie the score.
After Skubal navigated some hard contact in the sixth, the Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh but failed to score.
“Sometimes it could be even more frustrating for an offense,” Freeman said. “We keep getting those opportunities, but ultimately we’ve got to cash those in. We haven’t done that in the last few days, but we’re all optimistic around here if we can keep creating these opportunities, at some point, as good as we are, we’ll get those hits.
“But we have a pitching group that keeps us in games, and they’ve been keeping us in it the last, I would say three, four, five weeks. As an offense, we’ve got to get it going. We know it’s crunch time and hopefully we can get hot here going into the playoffs.”
Skubal’s night was over after only 83 pitches. With Skubal coming off back-to-back 100-pitch starts, manager Dave Roberts didn’t want to push him.
“He wanted to stay in, and I love that, I respect that,” Roberts said. “He felt he had some more in there, but I had my thoughts.”
The Dodgers finally took the lead in the eighth, manufacturing a run with singles from Teoscar Hernández and Freeman around a sacrifice bunt from Ben Rortvedt.
The Dodgers’ bullpen held steady, with closer Tanner Scott earning his 20th save.
After the game, Skubal, who set the tone for the victory, returned to the field to catch up with his former teammates.
“I did a good job of keeping baseball baseball, and trying to compete and give our team a chance to win,” Skubal said. “But obviously this place is special.”
