LOS ANGELES, CA — The story Saturday afternoon in game two of a three-game weekend set between the Pirates and Dodgers was Tarik Skubal, showing why he is the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner.
As the Dodgers (79-51) were able to get past the 63-68 Pirates by a score of 4-3—another nail-biter for the back-to-back World Series champions—Skubal tossed seven innings with 11 strikeouts and allowed three runs on five hits and a walk (106 pitches, 74 for strikes).
Despite starting off on a rough note in his outing Saturday afternoon vs. the Pirates at Dodger Stadium, Tarik Skubal battled through, settled in and ended up recording 11 strikeouts for his first career win as a Dodger – Image Credit: Major League Baseball
After giving up the three runs in the top of the first inning, coming on two singles by Esmerlyn Valdez, San Juan, La Maguana, Dominican Republic, and Bryan Reynolds—followed by a bases-clearing triple from 2022 National League LatinoMVP Rookie of the Year Oneil Cruz, Nizao, Dominican Republic—the 29-year-old southpaw (8-7, 2.91 ERA) settled down and held the Pirates to two bloop singles while striking out all 11 over the next six innings.
“He sorta went into bully mode from that third inning on,” manager Dave Roberts said of Skubal postgame. “I thought you could see, you know, we fed off of that intensity.”
Skubal added later on: “I didn’t do a good job early in the game, but the boys picked me up. I was able to keep us in a game and obviously the offense got going and that’s all we needed to get a win today.”
Pittsburgh’s right-handed starter Jared Jones (2-5, 4.78 ERA) looked good for the first half of the game, consistently throwing fastballs in the triple-digits and carrying a no-hitter into the fourth inning. The only baserunners came on three walks but Los Angeles would get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning when Max Muncy led off with a line drive double to right field—marking the Dodgers’ first hit off of Jones who then allowed two more to surrender the lead in the fifth.
Muncy went 3-3 with two doubles, a single, and a walk while Kyle Tucker drove in the go-ahead runs with a two-run line drive single that got the 53,417 fans up on their feet at Dodger Stadium. The cheers for Tucker every time he came to the plate was a welcome sign for the struggling new free agent, who signed with LA this past offseason on a $240 million/four year deal.
“It was great. I was happy for him, I think the last couple days is more of what we’re going to see going forward,” noted Roberts of Tucker’s recent production. “He’s playing baseball and that’s the ask. And then the results we’ll bet on. Every at bat, you know, cheering for him, you got to feel that as a player. And so, like I said, it was really good for him to come through right there.”
Weather Note: It was 90 degrees in LA from start to finish, but you wouldn’t have known it because of the cool breeze felt by those in attendance every time a batter struck out today. A combined total of 25 Pirate and Dodger hitters whiffed Saturday afternoon…
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