{"id":435249,"date":"2026-08-17T13:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435249\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:48:15","slug":"dodgers-are-letting-down-tarik-skubal-with-their-listless-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435249\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers are letting down Tarik Skubal with their listless play"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I promise you, Tarik<\/a>, Los Angeles will show you so much support if you fight like you did Sunday.<\/p>\n

Though you, of course, would also appreciate a little help from your new friends.<\/p>\n

A little run support. A little urgency. For them to clean it up a little in the field behind you.<\/p>\n

Everything that was missing \u2014 again \u2014 in the Dodgers\u2019 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> on Sunday, their 11th loss in 16 games.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s we-have-Tarik-Skubal-and-you-don\u2019t game against the Brewers \u2014 Milwaukee also sought his services but refused, reportedly, to part with winning pitcher Logan Henderson<\/a> in a deal \u2014 didn\u2019t go as planned for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

Skubal threw a career-high 109 pitches through six innings, gave up two runs and took the loss for the second time in three starts with the Dodgers, who were trailing 2-1 when he left the game.<\/p>\n

Skubal is new here and it\u2019s already a familiar story: They trailed 2-1 when he left the game after six innings in his debut and they were down 3-2 when he exited after five innings in his second start with the club.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not personal. The Dodgers have scored the sixth-fewest runs (50) in baseball this month, when they\u2019ve gone 5-10. They have an OPS of .672, which is 21st in baseball in that span.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not just scuffling, they\u2019re sleepwalking, this team that previously had a .773 OPS through the end of July.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re getting every team\u2019s best shot, as they knew they would, and they\u2019re … shrugging.<\/p>\n

\"Freddie <\/p>\n

Freddie Freeman reacts to hitting a foul ball during the ninth inning of the Dodgers\u2019 6-2 loss to the Brewers on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are hard,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said<\/a>. \u201cHitting\u2019s hard. But I do think that fighting and winning pitches, spoiling pitches, that\u2019s care, hunger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the reason why you look at four and a half months in a season, the Brewers have outscored us. It\u2019s a team that\u2019s young and hungry. It\u2019s certainly not talent. I say this because, this has been four, five, six weeks of below-average production from our offense. It\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presumably, when the games mean more and the three-peat-dreaming Dodgers \u2014 who scored only 10 runs in four games against the Brewers, three of which they lost \u2014 will care enough to wake up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that it\u2019ll take more, apparently, for the Dodgers to stop hitting the snooze button and start hitting the baseball than the prospect of locking up a potential tiebreaker against the Milwaukee Brewers on a pleasant Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

Clearly it\u2019ll take more, too, than wanting to make a good first impression on Skubal, the two-time Cy Young-award winner and free agent-to-be.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers acquired Skubal<\/a> in an abundantly predictable bombshell trade with the Detroit Tigers in exchange for a trio of prospects<\/a>, wanting to test the idiom that a ballclub can never have enough pitching.<\/p>\n

His new colleagues haven\u2019t done anything to make him miss his best friends on the Detroit Tigers any less, but Skubal hasn\u2019t exactly issued a dominant first impression, either.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been the nightmare pairing so many predicted \u2014 at least not for opponents.<\/p>\n

In each start, Skubal has been inefficient, he\u2019s been searching for his command. In his 17 innings over three games in Dodger blue, he\u2019s given up 15 hits and seven runs (six earned), 19 strikeouts and six walks.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, we can totally table the debate about who should be the Dodgers\u2019 first starter in the postseason: In Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> we trust.<\/p>\n

But credit Skubal for gritting it out each time, keeping the Dodgers in those three games against the Chicago Cubs, the Kansas City Royals and Brewers.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, after settling down in the third and fourth innings, he went back to work in the sixth inning, fired up \u2014 and struck out the side with the help of a 99-mph fastball and sinker.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal yells into his glove while walking off the field during the fifth inning against the Brewers on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just frustrated with the pitch count through five,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cI\u2019m glad Doc gave me an opportunity to go back out there for the sixth, just save some innings from the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy last outing was five. The one before that was six. That\u2019s just, it\u2019s not acceptable. It\u2019s not the standard of what I think I\u2019m capable of in this league. So, you know, I just need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

So too do the Dodgers\u2019 big name free-agent signings from last offseason: $240-million man Kyle Tucker<\/a> went 0 for 19 on the homestand and dropped a ball in right field Sunday; high-profile closer Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> is making every save opportunity a high-wire tightrope act, blowing three opportunities in his past five appearances.<\/p>\n

Maybe there\u2019s a lesson there: Buyer beware?<\/p>\n

Still, Roberts likes what he\u2019s learned about Skubal so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWants to win; prepared; great competitor,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWe certainly haven\u2019t seen his best yet, but man, it feels good every time he\u2019s out there. It really does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just still don\u2019t think we\u2019ve seen his best, which is a good thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Skubal can fight to get up off this floor \u2014 if that is what this is, the low point for both the pitcher and his new club \u2014 L.A. will love him for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I promise you, Tarik, Los Angeles will show you so much support if you fight like you did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2135,2136,1496,426,423,172775,23932,48,52,51,47,50,49,3289,54,1424,21949,2668,168309,776,18471],"class_list":["post-435249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball","tag-brewer","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-dodgers","tag-game","tag-gritty-start","tag-innings","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-loss","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-opportunity","tag-pitch","tag-run","tag-skubal","tag-sunday","tag-tarik-skubal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}