A Walk in the Park: Tarik Skubal Retires 15 Straight in the Heat as Dodgers Top Braves 5-3 in NLDS Opener
By Elle Elena ·
The hardest pitch Tarik Skubal threw all season was a ball. It came in the second inning at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, a 101.1 mph four-seamer to Austin Riley that missed, right after a changeup for a called strike and a 98 mph fastball Riley swung through. The next pitch was a 99.6 mph sinker that plate umpire Roberto Ortiz called a ball. Will Smith challenged it, the automated ball-strike system put it in the zone, and Riley was out on strikes. That was the second of Skubal's seven strikeouts in six innings, and the Dodgers went on to beat the Braves 5-3 in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. It was 100 degrees and sunny at first pitch, 3:08 p.m. Central.
Drake Baldwin led off the game with a ground-ball single to center. Skubal then retired the next 15 Braves, and all seven strikeouts came inside that stretch. He struck out the side in the third: Sean Murphy on a curveball, Ha-Seong Kim on a changeup Kim tipped into Smith's glove, and Baldwin on another changeup. The changeup carried the afternoon. Atlanta swung through it eight times out of 13 total whiffs, and four of the seven strikeouts ended on it. His four-seamer averaged 98.1 mph, his highest average this season, according to MLB.com.
"The few changeups that he threw me away were pretty much dotted down and away," Riley said, per MLB.com's Sonja Chen. "He's got a really good four-seamer, and it blends well with the changeup."
The sixth was the only inning that asked him for anything extra. Murphy challenged a called first strike and lost, took another strike, fouled one off, took a curveball for a ball, and hit a 1-2 sinker at 98.9 mph 421 feet to center. Skubal walked Kim, the No. 9 hitter, on six pitches. Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr. each grounded to Mookie Betts at shortstop for a force at second. Ozzie Albies walked. Matt Olson won a challenge on the first pitch, turning a called strike into a ball, worked the count to 2-2, and flied out to Teoscar Hernández in left on a 99.7 mph fastball. That stranded two runners, and at 94 pitches Skubal was done.
"Honestly," Skubal said, per MLB.com, "the home run at-bat was probably the best-executed at-bat of that inning."
It was his first postseason start at home; the earlier ones all came on the road with Detroit. The Dodgers traded for him on Aug. 2, sending outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-hander River Ryan to the Tigers. ESPN reported that when Dave Roberts told him on Sept. 25 that he would start Game 1, Skubal had assumed Yoshinobu Yamamoto would get it. ESPN also noted that Sandy Koufax, 90, watched from the second row. If I ever pitch a playoff game, I would prefer not to know that until afterward.
Atlanta's plan looked a lot like the one that beat Philadelphia on Thursday. Two days after Ray Kerr's 3 1/3 scoreless innings, Dylan Dodd opened and gave three scoreless of his own: two singles, no walks, four strikeouts, 47 pitches. He struck out Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Andy Pages in order in the second. The trouble with a bullpen game is that it keeps going after the good part.
Victor Mederos started the fourth, got Smith on a fly ball, walked Freddie Freeman on four pitches, and threw Hernández a 1-1 cutter that went 431 feet to left-center at 109.9 mph. MLB.com's Mark Bowman laid out why Mederos was the one out there: Didier Fuentes had pitched Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Robert Suarez had pitched Thursday, and Walt Weiss had indicated before the game that he likely would not use Grant Holmes in a bulk role, two days after his two innings against the Phillies.
AJ Smith-Shawver came on after Tucker singled, and Tucker stole second on him. In the sixth, right after Murphy's homer made it 2-1, Hernández singled and Tucker hit a 1-0 fastball 408 feet to right. Two batters later, Max Muncy hit a 2-1 splitter 354 feet to right, the shortest of the game's five home runs, and it was 5-1.
Michael Harris II had a good afternoon in center without a hit, catching Pages's 351-foot line drive in the fourth and Smith's 105.7 mph liner in the seventh. Brent Suter added two innings with three strikeouts.
Brock Stewart and Alex Vesia each threw a perfect inning for Los Angeles. In the ninth, Acuña lined a full-count slider from Tanner Scott into left, and Albies hit the next pitch, a 97 mph fastball, 432 feet to center. Scott got Olson and Harris on ground balls. Evan Phillips came in, walked Mauricio Dubón after getting ahead 1-2, and got Riley to ground an 0-2 sweeper to Betts for the save. Atlanta finished with four hits, two of them home runs.
"We've got plenty of pitching," Weiss said, per Bowman.
Up Next
Game 2 is Sunday at 7 p.m. Central at Dodger Stadium, with Blake Snell starting for Los Angeles. Bowman reported the Braves were still deciding whether to give Chris Sale the ball, with Tyler Mahle a possible Game 3 starter if Sale goes Sunday. I prefer my Sunday baseball at 1 in the afternoon, but in October I will take it whenever it shows up.
The series moves to Truist Park for Game 3 on Tuesday, with Yamamoto lined up for the Dodgers, and Game 4 there Wednesday if needed. A Game 5 would be Friday in Los Angeles. In the current 2-2-1 Division Series format, teams that won Game 1 at home have gone on to win 42 of 56 series, according to MLB.com.