During the top of the third inning of Monday night’s Royals vs. Dodgers game, the SportsNet LA broadcast flashed a leaderboard of the lowest starter ERA since the start of the 2023 season. Of the five names listed, four are currently employed by the back-to-back champs: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and the star of this particular evening, Tarik Skubal. Some understandably pessimistic fans in western Pennsylvania surely harbor fear that the fifth figure, Paul Skenes, will end up in Dodger blue one day as well.
But if that list was a reminder — as if anybody needed another — of the preposterous talent gilding L.A.’s star-studded roster, Skubal’s ordinary performance on Monday in his first home start as a Dodger emphasized that nothing in this wonky sport is preordained.
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Pitching in front of a revved up, eager audience, Skubal was downright mediocre in L.A.’s 6-5 victory over the Royals.
His fastball command was, by his cathedral standards, scattershot. He struggled to locate the four-seamer consistently at and just above the top rail, right where the world-beating southpaw makes his bread. Skubal had similar issues with his sinker, a handful of which ended up catching far too much plate, including one that resulted in a first-inning RBI single from Royals first baseman Jac Caglianone.
But the hammer blow of Skubal’s night came in the third, when he gifted Caglianone a hanging, piped 0-2 slider. The scalding-hot lefty didn’t miss the miss, sizzling the breaker 110.8 mph into the right-field seats to give Kansas City an early 3-0 lead.
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After contact, Skubal wheeled around toward second base with a wincing grimace on his face. He didn’t look toward the ball — he didn’t have to. He knew where it was landing.
From there, the 29-year-old more or less pushed his outing back onto the rails. He cruised through a seven-pitch fourth before navigating out of yet another jam in the fifth, getting Caglianone to whiff over a trademark changeup.
And that was it. At 95 pitches, Skubal’s day was done.
In the end, both the spectacle of the evening and the ace’s final line were decidedly underwhelming. Skubal needed 95 pitches to complete 5 innings, over which he surrendered 4 hits, walked 2, struck out 6 and allowed 3 runs, all earned. It was far from disastrous and also far from the best-case scenario for a highly anticipated home debut.
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At the same time, it’s important to consider the context. Even the best in the world, sometimes, deserve a bit of grace.
The past 10 days have been a whirlwind and a half for Skubal; it’s not altogether shocking that he looked somewhat out of sorts on Monday. His battery-mate was Hunter Feduccia, who himself was dealt to Los Angeles on deadline day. Establishing rapport takes time. And last week, in his Dodgers debut at Wrigley Field, Skubal threw to Ben Rortvedt, a different catcher acquired by L.A. at the deadline. He’s also only a few months removed from an unprecedented, innovative elbow surgery.
Of course, these are not excuses, merely explanations.
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Skubal acknowledged postgame that his fastball command was not where he wanted it to be, but even so, he referred to the result as “all in all, a good team win.”
“Our offense picked me up big-time, defense picked me up big-time, and the bullpen was outstanding tonight,” he said.
Going forward, odds are, Skubal will get things figured out.
The same already seems true for the recently-in-free-fall Dodgers, who came back from that early deficit to defeat Kansas City. Los Angeles had lost eight of its previous nine games, including a season-high seven-game skid. With the Red Sox, Cubs and Diamondbacks all taking series from the sport’s ultimate Big Bad, there were, at the very least, cracks beginning to show. Playing a bottom feeder such as the Royals must have felt like a well-earned reprieve.
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On Monday, the Dodgers’ offense simply overwhelmed a Royals bullpen well beyond its depth. It wasn’t the crispest performance, but a three-hit night from Freddie Freeman was enough to win the day.
Still, L.A.’s recent schneid and the lackluster outing from Skubal reinforced a reality often obscured by apocalyptic internet headlines: This team is very beatable.
In fact, the Dodgers were beatable last year, when Toronto, you know, nearly beat them. In a five-game or three-game set, anything can happen.
Having a rotation this stacked certainly bends the odds, but if the Royals can tip Skubal off his perch on a given night, any team can.
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