LOS ANGELES -- Tarik Skubal has often told teammates he doesn't like to showcase his best fastball early, preferring to leave something in the tank for when higher leverage situations demand them in the later innings. But then the second inning of his first playoff start as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers arrived Saturday afternoon, and Skubal dialed it all the way up to 101 mph, a mark he hadn't reached all year.
"I think I was just trying to match the temperature out there," Skubal said with a smile. "It was a hot one."
Really, though, he was setting a tone.
Skubal pitched in triple-digit heat at Dodger Stadium and provided a scintillating postseason debut, limiting the Atlanta Braves to one run in six innings to lead his team to a 5-3 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
Skubal gave up a leadoff single to Drake Baldwin and served up a home run to Sean Murphy to begin the sixth inning. In between, he retired 15 consecutive batters, seven via strikeout. All told, Skubal allowed two hits and generated eight swing-and-misses on his changeup, a pitch further amplified by a fastball that averaged 98.1 mph.
"He was as advertised for the postseason," Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, "and it was really fun to see him go out there and do his thing."
The Dodgers spent the past four days trying their best to simulate a postseason environment during their time off, staging simulated games to stay acclimated to major league velocity and staging watch parties to simulate the comradery of October. Through three innings, their offense did nothing against Braves opener Dylan Dodd. But Teoscar Hernandez jolted the offense to life with a two-run homer off Victor Mederos in the fourth.
In the sixth, after the Braves cut their deficit in half, Kyle Tucker, who has had a miserable first season in L.A. but seemed to finally get on track last month, provided a much-needed cushion with a two-run homer off AJ Smith-Shaver. Two batters later, Muncy homered as well, giving the Dodgers a four-run lead that proved valuable when Ozzie Albies hit a two-run homer off Tanner Scott in the ninth.
All throughout, though, Skubal was the steadying presence, a continuation of what has come to define him this time of year.
Skubal, acquired from the Detroit Tigers in a blockbuster trade at midseason, became the first Dodgers pitcher to go at least six innings and allow no more than two hits in his playoff debut. His 0.72 WHIP in the postseason is the lowest in history for a pitcher with at least five starts. Skubal has 63 strikeouts in the playoffs, trailing only Bob Gibson (74) for the most in a pitcher's first seven postseason games, according to ESPN Insights.
Dating to the start of last year, Skubal has a 1.69 ERA in four playoff starts, accumulating 43 strikeouts against six walks in 26â…” innings. Only three other pitchers have recorded at least 40 strikeouts and allowed no more than five runs in a four-start span in the playoffs.
One of them is Sandy Koufax, who, at 90 years old, took in Skubal's start from the second row.
"He's a bull," Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said of Skubal. "He's one of those guys that you want in the front of your rotation."
The Dodgers used two of their most prized prospects, outfielder Zhyir Hope and right-hander River Ryan, to pry Skubal from the Tigers on Aug. 2. Their rotation was already loaded, and Skubal was only months away from free agency. But the Dodgers' biggest competitors were in on him, especially the first-place Milwaukee Brewers, and Skubal was the one player who could provide a meaningful shift to their championship odds.
Skubal proceeded to post a 2.61 ERA in 10 starts and along the way fit in seamlessly with his new teammates, most notably fellow lefty Blake Snell, who quickly became one of his closest friends. When Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed him from his start in San Francisco on Sept. 25, after seven scoreless innings and just 75 pitches, he told him to get ready for Game 1, at which point Skubal basically asked: "Are you sure?"
He figured Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be the guy. The last thing he wanted, he told Roberts, was for anyone to feel as if they had to placate him.
Then Skubal showed why he was the right choice all along.
"It was a ton of fun," Skubal said of his first postseason start at Dodger Stadium. "I love pitching here. I love pitching at home. I love pitching in front of these fans. I've got a lot of respect for the fans that came out and showed up today. It's not easy. It's 100 degrees. The sun was on us the entire game."
In some ways, this heat was nothing.
Skubal grew up pitching in the heat of Arizona. On one afternoon in particular, Skubal claimed, he was in Lake Havasu, and the temperature got up to 127 degrees. On Saturday, it sat comfortably at 103, but Skubal said he barely noticed. It wasn't until he settled into the dugout, after ending a laborious sixth inning -- one that saw him induce an inning-ending flyout of Matt Olson with two runners on -- that the conditions hit him.
Skubal turned to Snell and asked, "Has it been this hot all game?"
Yes, he was told.
"It's amazing what your brain can do in certain circumstances and moments," Skubal said later. "It's amazing what you can control and kind of eliminate."
