Cubs Beat Dodgers in Tarik Skubal’s 1st Start for L.A.

The talk of Major League Baseball’s trading deadline wasn’t if Detroit Tigers ace pitcher Tarik Skubal would be traded; rather, it was would he go anywhere besides his preferred choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. L.A. is the two time defending World Series champs, and in an effort to make it three in a row, the Dodgers did indeed acquire Skubal in a trade.

The Dodgers, with their vast financial resources, have been accused of buying up a lot of the top baseball talent, and this trade put an exclamation point on it. Although Skubal is a free agent after this season, it’s a forgone conclusion he will sign with the Dodgers for a stratospheric amount of money. This also adds fuel to the fire that there will be lockout after December 1st when the current collective bargaining agreement ends, as the owners seek to institute a salary cap. The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have salary caps, though there are differences in each one. The player’s union is adamantly against a salary cap, and collective bargaining negotiations are expected to be contentious, with many observers believing part if not all the 2027 season is in jeopardy.

But all that is after this season. Skubal made his Dodgers debut on August 4th at Wrigley Field in Chicago against the Cubs. He had a pretty good outing, allowing two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and 2 walks in six innings pitched. Skubal gave up a solo home run to Dansby Swanson in the third inning, and a run in the sixth on a Nico Horner RBI single. But the Dodgers could only muster a solo home run by Kyle Tucker in the first inning, and their bullpen allowed three more runs in the seventh and eighth innings for a 5-1 Cubs victory. Skubal took the loss and is 7-6 on the season.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Dodgers, which is their longest losing streak of the season. All of which shows that even with a loaded roster, a club still has to score more runs than the other guys, and nothing is guaranteed.