Nearly everything felt ‘weird’ for Dodgers’ Tarik Skubal in return to Detroit, from pregame routine to PitchCom malfunction in first at-bat

The brief delay to his first pitch was just one in a day filled with strange vignettes for Skubal as he adjusted to his new reality as the Tigers’ opponent rather than their ace.

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“I tried to just keep it day by day, leading up to it, obviously keep everything normal,” Skubal said after the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory in which he allowed one run across six rock-solid innings. “Try to just keep baseball the way I know how to play, the way I know how to go out there and compete.” 

“But obviously it was different,” Skubal admitted. “Just coming here and staying at a hotel.”

“It’s weird, right?”

Weird indeed.

Saturday will mark four weeks since the Tigers agreed to a deal to send Skubal to the Dodgers ahead of the trade deadline in a blockbuster that much of the industry saw coming but still shook the baseball world once actually completed. The two-time defending champions had pounced on the best available talent once again, and the Tigers had opted to cash in for a trio of prospects rather than chase a shrinking chance at a postseason berth with Skubal in tow before he reached free agency this winter. As Skubal spent the past month acclimating to his new organization, anticipation built for a potential showdown with his former club in Detroit if the Dodgers’ rotation lined up accordingly. 

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“You see on the schedule this little weekend in August when the Dodgers are coming to town,” Hinch said pregame. “And you do the math, 1-2-3-4-5 … What if they give him an extra day? What’s going to happen?” 

“And we find ourselves facing him on Friday night at Comerica. And now we’re tasked with facing one of the best pitchers in the game.”

And so, once Skubal arrived at Comerica Park as he had so many times before, he instead strolled down the tunnel to the visitors’ clubhouse on the first base side of the ballpark. As the clubhouse opened to the media a little over three hours before first pitch, Skubal was one of just a few Dodgers in sight, floating from room to room as if to familiarize himself with a side of the stadium he had never needed to explore. He chatted with fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to pass the time. He seemed loose, despite the challenging and unusual circumstances that awaited him outside as the game approached. This demeanor came as no surprise to Freddie Freeman, who spoke postgame about how chill Skubal has been leading up to his outings compared to, say, some other superstar southpaws in recent Dodgers history.

“We call him the opposite of Kersh,” Freeman said, a nod to future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw’s unwavering intensity in the hours leading up to his outings. 

Eventually, Skubal made his way out to the field. He began his series of stretches and long tosses in the outfield, but this time closer to center field rather than down the left-field line where he used to prepare as a Tiger. Once he completed his warm-ups, he started to move toward the visitors’ bullpen, with the entrance in deep left-center field rather than in the left-field corner for the Tigers’ pitchers. As he neared the door, Skubal looked over at the group of Tigers pitchers and coaches getting ready and hucked a ground ball toward his old pitching coach Chris Fetter. Fetter scooped it up bare-handed and smiled at Skubal from a distance, pointing at him to signal his appreciation. Skubal reciprocated.

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“He fielded it cleanly,” Skubal said afterward. “So it was good to watch him do that.”

Once his pregame throws in the bullpen were complete, Skubal began his trek back toward the dugout. It was then that the Tigers played a tribute video on the big screen beyond the left-field fence honoring his tremendous Detroit tenure. As Skubal walked, he turned to catch a few glimpses of some of the highlights of his journey as a Tiger from unheralded ninth-round draft pick to undisputed best pitcher on the planet. He tried to keep his composure, but his reaction was hardly subtle.

“There were definitely tears,” Skubal confirmed later. “And luckily enough, I was able to kind of make it to the tunnel before more happened.” 

The sellout crowd of 41,012 still shuffling into their seats paused and saluted their former ace, with a healthy majority of cheers and only a smattering of discontent mixed in from those reluctant to cheer for anyone donning Dodger blue. 

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“It’s tough,” Skubal said. “This is the place I’ve known my entire career since 2018. It was special.”

Once in the dugout, another new experience arrived as Skubal had to watch the top of the first inning at Comerica Park rather than dominate it himself. But after Tommy Edman grounded out to end a scoreless frame, Skubal emerged and headed toward the mound. And this time, the crowd seemingly greeted him with a less warm reception.

“With the last name Skub, you don’t know if they’re boos or they’re cheering for you,” Skubal said afterward in reference to the common “SKUUUUUB” chants that often rained down during his home starts. “So I’m gonna assume they were cheering for me, and that’s all I really got to say about that.”

Finally, it was time to go to work. Once the PitchCom got fixed, anyway. 

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After Skubal threw a high fastball for ball one, Torres welcomed him back with a ringing double to the left-center field gap. It was a sweet swing that made some sense considering Torres’ relative wealth of experience facing Skubal several times earlier in his career as a Yankee, a rarity among the bulk of Tigers hitters who have largely known Skubal only as a teammate. That dynamic sure seemed relevant after Torres’ leadoff double, as Skubal retired the next twelve batters in order without breaking much of a sweat. 

Skubal leaned especially heavily on his sensational changeup in the early going, notching five of his first six strikeouts on the cambio across the first three innings. Trouble did arrive in the fifth inning, however, when a pair of Tigers rookies did some damage to get Detroit on the board. After designated hitter Eduardo Valencia lined a double to left to lead off the inning, top prospect Max Clark scalded a 99 mph Skubal fastball down the left-field line for a triple to score Valencia and give Detroit a 1-0 lead. 

Skubal was able to lock back in from there and complete six innings, but that he exited after only 83 pitches raised some eyebrows considering how hard L.A. had pushed him in his previous two outings. His pitch count had climbed to a career-high 109 on Aug. 16 against Milwaukee and came close again with 106 on Aug. 22 against Pittsburgh, the third-most he’d ever thrown in a regular season outing. But Roberts confirmed afterward it was a deliberate decision to take it relatively easy on Skubal in this game in deference to the road ahead with plenty more high-stakes contests on the docket. 

“The last couple starts, I pushed him,” Roberts said. “So this was sort of predetermined, kind of trying to shorten it was the idea for me. He did a great job.”

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“Of course I do want to go back out there,” Skubal said. “Those decisions aren’t my decisions. Doc came to me and said, ‘You know, we got a long road.’ 

“He said he’s pushed me recently, and I don’t know if ‘play it safe’ is the right [phrase] because obviously I feel good to go, but you know we got a little bit more before we start pushing again.”

Had Skubal still been wearing a Tigers uniform on Friday night and was cruising through six innings for a team desperately trying to stick around in a wild-card race, it seems likely he’d be back out there for the seventh. Instead, the Dodgers and their 100% playoff odds are able to keep their eyes on a much larger prize that awaits in October. 

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Ultimately, Skubal’s early exit did not cost the Dodgers in their 135th regular-season game. A quartet of L.A. relievers – Evan Phillips, followed by Brock Stewart, Alex Vesia and closer Tanner Scott – delivered the three scoreless innings Roberts was hoping for. Miguel Rojas and Freeman provided the RBI singles required to eke out a much-needed victory coming off getting swept by the Braves in Atlanta. 

After the game, Skubal spent some time on the field catching up with a few teammates. More reunions are in store for the remainder of the weekend series.

“I could tell that there was some emotion walking onto the field out of the pen,” Roberts said. “You could see his emotion with that tribute, first time being back here, weighing heavily on him. But he did a great job, once the game started, going out there and competing and helping us win a ballgame.”

With this surreal start now behind him, Skubal can redirect his focus toward playing his part in pushing this Dodgers dynasty to even greater heights – as weird as it all still may be. 

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“I’m trying to throw myself into being an L.A. Dodger,” Skubal said. “And getting to know this team and getting to know the staff and getting settled in with everybody here. And go out and compete and try to win as many baseball games as I can here.”

“I’m sure this was marked on his calendar,” Roberts said. “There was a lot of heavy, hard emotion. So I think this is the last box that I think he needed to check. 

“Now we can move forward and feel good about it.”