The Dodgers didn’t wait long to show why they’re chasing a three-peat, and Tarik Skubal was the one who set the tone in Game 1.
On a brutally hot afternoon at Dodger Stadium, the 29-year-old left-hander delivered exactly the kind of outing Los Angeles had in mind when it went all-in at the trade deadline. Skubal worked six innings against the Braves, allowing one run on two hits while walking two and striking out seven over 94 pitches. He walked off with a 5-1 lead, and the Dodgers held on for a 5-3 win to open the NLDS with a 1-0 series edge.
Skubal’s name carried plenty of weight when he became available this summer. Fresh off back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards and with free agency approaching, he was the biggest prize on the market.
The Dodgers landed him from the Tigers in a deal that sent Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit. It was a steep price, but Saturday made the move look like money well spent.
The start didn’t begin cleanly. Drake Baldwin singled to open the game, but that was the only early crack in Skubal’s armor.
He then retired 15 Braves in a row before Sean Murphy finally broke through with a solo homer to center to lead off the sixth. Atlanta didn’t do much else after that.
Skubal’s fastball was a weapon all afternoon. He leaned heavily on the four-seamer, and in the Chavez Ravine heat it averaged 98.1 mph, roughly 1.5 mph above his regular-season mark.
It was sitting at 97.8 mph in the first inning and climbed to 98.2 mph in his final frame. He also mixed in 24 changeups and got eight of his 13 whiffs with that pitch.
The heat didn’t appear to bother him. If anything, he looked sharper as the game moved along.
That fit the way he finished the regular season. In his last start against the Giants, Skubal turned in a classic line: seven shutout innings, three hits, no walks and 10 strikeouts. He carried that form into his first postseason outing in Dodger blue.
It was also more proof that October hasn’t shaken him. Saturday was his seventh postseason appearance, and his playoff numbers now sit at 3-1 with a 1.97 ERA, a 0.72 WHIP and 63 strikeouts against eight walks in 45 2/3 innings.
And with Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow all healthy, the rotation around him looks overwhelming.
The Dodgers’ offense didn’t need a perfect night from the stars to do its job either. Los Angeles scored all five of its runs on home runs, and the damage came from the lower half of the order.
Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman were held to a combined 3-for-14 with a run scored, two walks and a strikeout. Even so, the Dodgers kept finding ways to punish Atlanta.
Teoscar Hernández put them in front with a two-run homer in the fourth. After the Braves cut into the lead with a run in the top of the sixth, Kyle Tucker answered with a two-run blast in the bottom half, and Max Muncy followed two batters later with a solo shot. Hernández, Tucker and Muncy combined to go 5-for-12 with all five RBIs.
That’s the danger with this Dodgers lineup. If the top of the order is quiet, somebody else is ready to step in. Atlanta learned that the hard way, and Los Angeles walked away with a Game 1 win that showed just how deep this team really is.
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