To begin their quest for a third straight postseason World Series, the Dodgers will turn to the only pitcher in their rotation who has yet to win a championship ring.
Tarik Skubal is expected to be named the team’s starter for Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday, a source with knowledge of the situation told the California Post, giving the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner and marquee trade deadline acquisition an immediate opportunity to revive the club’s three-time bid.
The Dodgers, of course, didn’t have any bad options for their first game of the playoffs.
Their rotation features four pitchers who would be No. 1 options on most other clubs, with Skubal being joined by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow for this year’s October campaign.
However, Skubal is poised to get the nod, as first reported by The Athletic, after increasingly impressive late-season performances with the Dodgers following his blockbuster arrival from the Detroit Tigers in August.
The 29-year-old left-hander went 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 10 post-deadline starts with the club, improving on the 7-5 mark and 2.79 ERA he had with the Tigers during a first half that was sidetracked by an elbow procedure that sidelined him for all of May.
Skubal’s best outings came in the final weeks of the regular season, when he made two scoreless starts over seven innings in two of his final three appearances of the campaign.
Before Friday’s announcement, Yamamoto was thought to be the Dodgers’ Game 1 starter, given his World Series MVP exploits last fall.
But Yamamoto pitched well in a simulated game Wednesday during the club’s week of practice. That kept him on his usual once-a-week pitching schedule (his regular-season finale was the previous Wednesday) and could instead line him up to pitch Game 3 in Atlanta next Tuesday. Note: Yamamoto has significantly better splits on the road (1.77 ERA) than at home (3.13 ERA) this year.
Snell, who recently followed Skubal into the Dodgers rotation, seems like the logical candidate to start Game 2 on Sunday. Glasnow, who pitched another simulated game Thursday, is expected to play in Game 4 and could be an option out of the bullpen this weekend.
Although Skubal – who will be the sport’s top free agent this winter – has yet to win a World Series, he has an excellent postseason record.
In six postseason outings over the past two years with the Tigers, he pitched to a 2.04 ERA while striking out 56 batters in 39 ⅔ innings. Those numbers would be even better without his lone clunker from October, when he allowed five runs in a game-winner’s loss in Game 5 of the 2024 American League Division Series.
That failure became a motivating factor for Skubal over the next two years. It left him feeling unfinished as he now begins another playoff campaign in a new environment.
“Once the months change and the playoffs start, nothing matters,” he said last week. “It’s just about winning this game, and that’s how I treat every start. Because I’m just trying to put our team in a position to win a baseball game. That’s not going to change from today until my next start.”
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