Dodgers left-hander Tarik Skubal didn’t feel the full impact of the triple-digit heat Saturday until he sat in to the dugout after his start.
It wasn’t bearing down on him as he settled in early, or retired 15 straight hitters, or labored through a long sixth inning with the game on the line.
“It’s amazing what your brain can do in certain circumstances and moments,” he said after the Dodgers’ 5-3 win against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. ”It’s amazing what you can control and kind of eliminate.”
He was only talking about the weather. But he may as well have been answering a question about the stakes of the game, or the Dodger Stadium environment, or the pressure that could come from taking the ball in Game 1 as the new addition to a star-studded rotation.
He took all those factors in stride, en route to a six-inning, one-run gem. And he set up his new team, the one that had acquired him at the deadline to make exactly this kind of impact in the postseason, with a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five series.
“To win Game 1 is certainly important, very important,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We could have deployed our starters any way we wanted, but to have Blake [Snell] going tomorrow, to follow up with what Tarik did today, and knowing that you’ve got [Yoshinobu Yamamoto] in the holster for Game 3, we’re in a good spot. It all starts with winning Game 1.”
Though the Dodgers eventually broke open the game via the long ball, and the Braves were forced to throw a bullpen game coming out of a taxing wild-card round, Game 1 began as a pitching duel.
Braves left-hander Dylan Dodd held the Dodgers to just two hits through three scoreless innings. But Skubal was even more impressive, especially when he settled in after the first inning.
The subtle difference was clear when contrasting Braves leadoff hitter Drake Baldwin’s first and second at-bats against Skubal.
Skubal fell behind with his first pitch of the game, a fastball below the zone. He worked back, with another fastball for a strike and a foul-tipped changeup low and away. But then, in a two-strike count, Skubal missed his spot, giving Baldwin a thigh-high changeup that he could drive.
That sharp single through the middle of the infield was one of just two hits he gave up Saturday. And after it, he retired 15 straight batters.
By the time Skubal faced Baldwin again, with two outs in the third, his whole arsenal was dialed in. Four of the last five outs he’d recorded were strikeouts, with a different put-away pitch for each: slider, sinker, curveball, changeup.
This time, Skubal was the aggressor, getting to a 0-2 count with a slider and sinker inside. Then Baldwin avoided chasing a pair of sliders to even the count. Skubal came back inside with a fastball that Baldwin fouled off.
So, to end the at-bat, Skubal went to his signature changeup. It dove out of the bottom of the strike zone, and Baldwin swung through it, ending the inning on a strikeout.
“I have a pretty good view when it’s pretty good,” catcher Will Smith said. “It doesn’t really matter what the hitter is going to do. It’s, if he’s on, it’s really hard to hit.”
Skubal strutted off the mound, hit the palm of his glove twice, and slapped hands with Smith.
Dodger pitcher Tarik Skubal is congratulated by Will Smith after making quick work of the Braves in the second inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The southpaw didn’t allow another baserunner until the sixth. But by then, the Dodgers had been holding onto a lead for two innings.
Two innings earlier Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández broke the scoreless tie with a two-run homer.
Hernández knows how to fire up a crowd in a big postseason moment. And he seized his chance when he got a cutter down the middle from Braves reliever Victor Mederos. Hernández tossed his bat back toward the home dugout, and it sliced through the air end-over-end.
“I always want to be the guy to be in those moments,” Hernández said. “I worked really hard for it, and I think the bigger the moment, the more focused I get.”
So, when Sean Murphy got a hold of Skubal’s top-rail sinker for a solo homer in the sixth, the Dodgers still had a one-run advantage.
“Honestly, the home run at-bat was probably the best executed at-bat of that inning,” Skubal said.
He walked Ha-Seong Kim, Skubal’s first of the game, right after the home run. Then, after a pair of fielder’s-choice grounders, he fell behind in the count to Ronald Acuña Jr. And with a runner on base, he knew Acuña could put the Braves ahead with one swing. So, he didn’t give him anything to hit, and ended up walking him, too.
“Just understanding count leverage, understanding like momentum in game and trying to stop all those things,” Skubal said. “I think that’s part of what a starting pitcher does, and trying to leave the game with your team winning.”
Pitching coach Mark Prior came out for a mound visit, but Roberts stayed put, trusting his Game 1 starter to face Braves left-handed cleanup hitter Matt Olson for a third time. Skubal escaped the inning by getting Olson to chase an outside fastball and fly out to left field.
“He’s a competitor,” Hernández said. “Since the first day he got here, he’s trying to give everything that he got for this team. It feels like he’s been here forever. The person that he is, the player that he is, the way he works, it just has been awesome not only for him, but for everybody in the clubhouse and the organization to see the way he goes about his business and the dedication that he puts every day.”
The Dodgers offense showed its appreciation with a surge in the bottom half of the inning.
Right fielder Kyle Tucker, in his first postseason game as a Dodger, hit a two-run home run. And Max Muncy joined in with a solo homer.
Dodgers relievers Brock Stewart and Alex Vesia each retired the side in order, in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively. Left-hander Tanner Scott, whom Roberts plans to use in a fireman role, surrendered a two-run homer to Ozzie Albies in the ninth. But right-hander Evan Phillips came in to record the final out.
A combination of home runs and Skubal’s dominance made that ninth-inning blip just a side note.
“A really good starting rotation obviously is really helpful, but it is very impactful for quality of life,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said before the game. “We have gone through years where our starting rotation hasn’t been as good. In ’24 that wasn’t a strength of our roster. We won the World Series. The quality of life is way more difficult than being able to pencil in a Skubal, a [Blake] Snell, a [Yoshinobu Yamamoto], and a [Tyler Glasnow.]”
That held true for Game 1. Now, the Dodgers are just two wins away from the NLCS.
“Our starting pitching is elite,” Skubal said. “I’m excited to watch all these guys throw. I love when they take the ball because it gives us a really good chance to win, and that’s all you can ask.”