Tarik Skubal pitched his first playoff game for the Dodgers, winning Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Braves at Dodger Stadium on Saturday. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
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The Dodgers opened defense of their two consecutive World Series championships just as expected with a 5-3 victory over the Braves in Game 1 of a best-of-five National League Division Series in the intense heat on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
“To win Game 1 is certainly important, very important,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Tarik Skubal shut down the Braves. “We could have deployed our starters any way we wanted, so we’re in a good spot. But it all starts with winning Game 1.”
Game time temperature was 100 degrees as a rare October heat wave hit southern California, perhaps the early effects of what’s expected to be the havoc of the coming Super El Niño.
The incessant sun and heat led Skubal to quip when he cranked his fastball up to 100 mph in the second inning:
“I was just trying to match the temperature out there. It was a hot one.”
Skubal, making his first postseason start for the Dodgers, lasted six innings in the heat, allowing two hits, a Sean Murphy homer and two walks while striking out seven and throwing 94 pitches to earn the win.
“Tarik was fantastic,” Roberts said. “I thought the fastball was really good. Murphy clipped him on a ball above the zone with two strikes, but I thought the change up today was really effective; it kept them off balance. Slider was good. [Catcher] Will [Smith] did a fantastic job in probably the hottest game he’s pitched in.”
Actually, Skubal grew up in Arizona where the summer heat ranges from 100 to 120 degrees every day for months, so Saturday’s conditions were not a big deal.
“I played a Little League game in 127, Lake Havasu, yeah,” Skubal recalled.
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The new-look Dodgers are a tad different than their immediate predecessors as they try to three-peat for the first time in Major League Baseball since the 1998 to 2000 Yankees. They added Skubal from the Tigers at the trade deadline and signed right-fielder Kyle Tucker during the offseason as a free agent to a four-year, $240 million contract worth $57.2 million a season for luxury tax purposes, according to Spotrac.
Only two teams have at least three-peated in MLB history: The Yanks did it three times and the Oakland A’s won three in a row during the 1970s.
The Yanks hold the record of five straight titles from 1949 to 1954, and they did it back then with an all-white team. That happened in the era when MLB was integrating led by the crosstown New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, who shattered the color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson in 1947.
The Yankees didn’t integrate until they signed catcher Elston Howard in 1955, the year the Dodgers beat them to win their first and only World Series title in Brooklyn.
It’s fitting, then, that the Dodgers could become the first NL team to win three in a row and they are doing it with a truly international club consisting of players who represent multiple races and cultures. This is what the legendary Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey wrought in 1947 when he forged the coming of star African Americans, Cubans, other Latin Americans, and now Asians throughout MLB.
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They are multi-national, led by Roberts, who was born to an African American father and Japanese mother.
Roberts is already the most successful Major League manager of this era having won the World Series three times since the 2020 COVID-shortened season, and has taken his team to the playoffs 11 years in a row – in every year he’s managed. He has a .621 winning percentage. His eventual Hall of Fame credentials are set.
As the core of the championship teams is getting older and frailer, Dodgers baseball operations under Andrew Friedman hasn’t been shy about making key additions.
Even with Shohei Ohtani shelved from pitching for the remainder of the postseason because of knee and arm injuries, the Dodgers starting rotation is healthy and an embarrassment of riches. Skubal will be followed by fellow left-hander Blake Snell in Game 2 at home on Sunday and last year’s postseason hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto is ready for Game 3 in Atlanta on Tuesday. Tyler Glasnow is available after that. Each were either a trade acquisition or free-agent signing.
When we left Yamamoto at the end of last year’s World Series, he started Game 6 and finished Game 7 in Toronto, winning both and helping the Dodgers to come back from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Blue Jays.
“Yeah, I’m really excited,” Skubal said. “Our starting pitching is elite. 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. I know they’re going to leave everything out on the field.”
Skubal, the top free agent after this World Series, was the big prize at the trade deadline when the Tigers made it plain they weren’t going to re-sign him. His agent is Scott Boras, who’s reputation is obtaining the biggest deal for his clients.
Skubal’s comp is Yamamoto, who the Dodgers signed out of Japan before the 2024 season for 12 years, $250 million, the most ever paid to a free agent pitcher. In 2025, the Yanks added Max Fried for $218 million over eight seasons, which is more per season over a shorter term.
In this market, even with an owner-dictated lockout pending for Dec. 1, Skubal should garner a lot more than that from all the usual suspects: The Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and of course the Dodgers.
Skubal told Boras before the deadline to get him to Los Angeles, and he was traded for a trio of prospects. The Tigers didn’t really consider any other offers. His little more than two months there has surpassed expectations, he said.
“It’s been a ton of fun,” he said. “I love pitching here. I love pitching at home. I love pitching in front of these fans. I have a lot of respect for the fans who showed up today. It’s not easy. It’s 100 degrees. The sun was on us the entire game. So, I have a lot of respect for everybody that showed up. As a team we appreciated that.”
The Dodgers handed out free water bottles to everybody. The baseball was worth the price.
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