ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Tarik Skubal knows he will feel emotions when he makes his return to Detroit on Friday night to pitch against the Tigers only four weeks after he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Skubal says he hopes to focus on representing the Dodgers instead of dwelling on his memories with the Tigers at Comerica Park. He acknowledged it may not be easy to keep his emotions in check.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see, right?\u201d Skubal told SI.com on Wednesday. \u201cThe whole process was emotional. I have a lot of respect for those guys over there. I\u2019m just going to go play baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall this season, Skubal is 8-7 with a 2.91 ERA. In four starts for the Dodgers since the Aug. 1 trade, Skubal is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA. He is coming off his first win for the Dodgers. The left-hander had 11 strikeouts in seven innings in a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh in Los Angeles on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Skubal, 29, made his major league debut with Detroit in 2020 and had played for no other team before the trade. The deal sent the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner to the two-time defending World Series champions.<\/p>\n
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he believes Skubal has the right temperament to handle the emotions which will come with his Detroit homecoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, you know, that whole \u2018be where your feet are\u2019 adage, I think that\u2019s just who he is,\u201d Roberts said Wednesday. \u201cSome people have a hard time letting go, but I think that Tarik is a guy that, wherever he\u2019s at, he\u2019s all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts said he expects Skubal \u201cis going to try to engage guys and immerse himself with coaches, with his teammates, the best he can. That\u2019s a good trait. Like I said, I\u2019ve only known him a short time, but I\u2019m really, really fortunate we got him on our club. Not even just for the pitching, just beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skubal said he is \u201csure it will be emotional there just because of the history.\u201d The emotions will be fresh because he has had less than one month to adjust to his new Los Angeles home before making his return to Detroit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the end of the day, I\u2019ve got to go play baseball,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to compete and do what I do well, what makes me a good pitcher. I\u2019ll probably handle the emotions after.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers are expected to have right-hander Drew Anderson (4-5, 4.09 ERA) face Skubal in the opener of the three-game series.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Maura Carey contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n
Charles Odum, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Tarik Skubal knows he will feel emotions when he makes his return to Detroit on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-873884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}