<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal speaks during a news conference ahead of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws during practice ahead of a baseball NL Division Series Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal warms up during practice ahead of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Terrill\/AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal (29) smiles as he walks to the dugout after San Francisco Giants’ Shay Whitcomb struck out during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Jeff Chiu\/AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Tarik Skubal expects to hear cheers instead of the usual boos when he takes the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That’s because the 29-year-old left-hander will be starting a postseason game at home for the first time in his career. His first six career playoff starts with the Detroit Tigers in 2024 and ’25 all came on the road.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for the opportunity to throw in front of the fans,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to get some cheers in there for us. I think it\u2019s going to be a ton of fun in front of this atmosphere. Hopefully everyone is drinking a lot of water and staying hydrated. It\u2019s going to be a hot one.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he’s not talking about his own high heat.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is under an extreme heat warning that’s expected to last into late next week. Saturday’s high is forecast to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) at a time of year when the average temperature is 81 degrees (27 Celsius).<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re going to drink a lot of water,\u201d Skubal said.<\/p>\n He was chosen as the Game 1 starter over 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Braves had yet to name a starter.<\/p>\n Manager Dave Roberts informed Skubal last Sunday after his final regular-season start in San Francisco that he would get the ball for the NLDS opener.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t always get to deliver good messages, and that was a good one, a fun one,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWith this ballclub it\u2019s an easy kind of thought that Yoshi would be the Game 1 starter, absolutely. So Tarik was very respectful of Yoshinobu, but we have thoughts on why we do things, and all these guys are all in for whatever we decide.\u201d<\/p>\n In Detroit, Skubal had a career postseason record of 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA and 56 strikeouts.<\/p>\n The Dodgers acquired Skubal from the Tigers just ahead of the August trade deadline in exchange for three prospects. He is earning a record $32 million this season, won through arbitration while still with Detroit. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the postseason.<\/p>\n He was warmly welcomed by Dodger fans in his home debut on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cMy first start here was really special to me,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cThe ovation I got, I didn’t even feel that well, and kind of just to get that reaction and get that kind of interaction with the fans, they’ve embraced me. I really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n He has spent the last couple of months learning the catchers and getting to know his new teammates while going 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 10 appearances during the regular season.<\/p>\n \u201cJust getting more comfortable kind of in my own skin,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cI think that matters and that stuff just takes time, especially when you make a big transition in the middle of the season. I feel confident with where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n Skubal and fellow lefty Blake Snell, who will start Game 2 on Sunday, gravitated toward each other, in part because of a shared sense of humor.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think the level of respect we have for each other, both being left-handed starters, both accomplishing a lot in the game so far, I think that\u2019s kind of pushed us to the curiosity of how did you get so good? What did you do?\u201d Snell said. \u201cHe\u2019s extremely confident in what he\u2019s doing, and it\u2019s almost like a carefree, fearless type of mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n Landing Skubal had the rest of baseball grumbling that the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers were ruining the sport with their huge payroll and abundance of talent, led by two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom top to bottom, they\u2019re very much aligned with trying to win championships,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got one goal at hand. I fit right in with that. Everything that I try to do is try to win as many baseball games as I can. I\u2019m excited to start doing that in October.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal speaks during a news conference ahead of a baseball NL Division Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,114,1560,99869,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,9500,9501,9496,82611,9497,39138,82908,9498,468,382,313],"class_list":["post-820798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-blake-snell","tag-dave-roberts","tag-dodgers-tarik-skubal-nlds","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-31999-ap-online-baseball-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40781-ap-georgia-sports-only","tag-product-40792-ap-michigan-sports-only","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n