Skubal's Ugly Home Debut Saved by Dodgers' Late-Game Heroics: 'I'll Be Better'
LOS ANGELES — The headline was supposed to be Tarik Skubal's coronation at Chavez Ravine. Instead, the two-time Cy Young winner looked painfully human — five innings, 95 pitches, and a fastball that kept wandering where it shouldn't. Sound like a disaster? Not quite. The Dodgers bailed him out.
“We won, so, I'll gladly take that in a win any day of the week,” Skubal shrugged after L.A.'s 6-5, come-from-behind thriller over the Royals. “I'll be better going forward.”
Roberts Throws Down the Gauntlet
Coming into the night, the Dodgers were 1-7 since pulling off the blockbuster trade for Skubal — a slide that had the haters screaming “money ruins baseball” all over again. Manager Dave Roberts wasn't having it. Before opening a seven-game homestand, he put his team on blast:
“We're a wild-card team right now,” Roberts said. “We gotta get going and play with urgency.”
Message received.
The Comeback Scrap
It started ugly. Jac Caglianone launched a 110.8 mph missile off Skubal in the third inning — the hardest-hit homer the lefty has allowed all season — and the Dodgers were staring at a 3-0 hole. Then the bats went to work. Shohei Ohtani ripped a double, Freddie Freeman followed with a single, and just like that, it was a one-run game.
The real fireworks came in the sixth. With two outs and the bases juiced, Max Muncy unloaded a three-run double that flipped the scoreboard. But the Royals weren't done — Kyle Isbel answered with a two-run homer in the seventh to tie it.
Enter Freddie Freeman, the steady veteran who refuses to let this team panic. With two outs in the bottom half, he stroked an RBI single, giving L.A. the lead for good. Then Edwin Díaz — yes, the guy who blew two saves on the road trip — slammed the door in the ninth, breezing through the Royals' order to seal it.
“We've got a good group that's been together for a long time, that knows how to win,” Freeman said. “There's gonna be no panic out of this clubhouse.”
Skubal's Off Night, In His Own Words
Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Skubal wasn't anywhere near sharp. He needed 95 pitches just to get 15 outs. Of the 16 Royals hitters who reached two-strike counts, he struck out only six — and six of them reached base (two singles, two walks, a hit-by-pitch, and that homer). Caglianone's bomb came on an 0-2 slider that hung right in the zone.
“I kinda sprayed the ball a little bit,” Skubal admitted. “That's kind of unusual for me.”
The emotion was real, too. Skubal didn't want to leave Detroit — the team that drafted him in 2018 and turned him into a superstar. He's been open about wanting to re-sign with the Tigers this offseason. But Monday night, he deflected any talk of closure.
“The game of baseball always stays the same,” Skubal said. “I'm just playing in a new clubhouse... My focus is always going to be to win a World Series and do what I can to help this team.”
Blue Crew's Bigger Picture
This win nudged the Dodgers to 71-48 — actually better than they were at this point in each of the past two championship seasons. But the vibes have been off: since July 1, they're 15-18, ranking 21st in OPS and 23rd in ERA.
Relief is on the way. Blake Snell gets activated Tuesday, his second start of the season. Tyler Glasnow could return by month's end. Will Smith is closing in on a rehab assignment. And Skubal? He's banking on his own bounce-back.
On a night when the ace was far from ace-like, his teammates had his back. That's the kind of win that can turn a season around.