{"id":822818,"date":"2026-08-23T05:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822818\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T05:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:10:08","slug":"skubal-shakes-off-3-run-first-inning-then-settles-in-to-dominate-for-his-1st-win-as-a-dodger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822818\/","title":{"rendered":"Skubal shakes off 3-run first inning, then settles in to dominate for his 1st win as a Dodger"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 Tarik Skubal<\/a> started out shaky, putting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in the first inning. Then, the two-time Cy Young Award winner dug in to flash the stuff that made him baseball’s prize acquisition at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Skubal struck out 11 \u2014 one off his season best \u2014 to earn his first win since joining the two-time defending World Series champions, 4-3 over the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

“That’s the guy that we needed. Completing seven innings, reset the bullpen, great outing,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said. “He\u2019s very physical, and you can see that when he needs to reach back for more, it\u2019s in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skubal was 0-2 with a 3.18 ERA in his first three starts with the Dodgers, who acquired him in a blockbuster deal with the Detroit Tigers earlier this month.<\/p>\n

After a rough first inning in which he gave up three consecutive hits that led to three runs, Skubal (8-7) settled down and retired 20 of his final 23 batters. The left-hander allowed five hits with one walk. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not gonna be perfect out there, but I definitely need to be better in the first inning,\u201d he said. “But other than that, I thought my execution was good. The stuff coming out of my hand is as good as it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skubal was still throwing hard over his final two innings, reaching 99 mph to get Jared Triolo to pop up and topping 100 mph in finishing off Jake Mangum for his final strikeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve always been able to sustain velocity, from pitch one to pitch however many I\u2019m allowed to go,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I feel confident commanding the ball, that\u2019s when I feel like I can really start letting it rip and it\u2019s going to go where I want it to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skubal has been studying the game-planning and bullpen sessions of his rotation mates, including fellow lefty Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He also watched Shohei Ohtani<\/a> throw a live bullpen session before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a ton of really good arms here, a ton of talent, and it\u2019s just about us going out there and playing baseball and executing,\u201d he said. “When we\u2019re doing that, we\u2019re the best team in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Tarik Skubal started out shaky, putting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[8974,4284,102537,49760,363,3956,99,4706,8963],"class_list":["post-822818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-blake-snell","tag-dave-roberts","tag-jake-mangum","tag-jared-triolo","tag-mlb","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}