MILWAUKEE — Above all, the Dodgers wanted Tarik Skubal on their team. When they pursued him at the trade deadline, they saw him as the rare player who could improve their chances of winning a third straight World Series.
It didn’t hurt that by acquiring him, they kept other playoff contenders, including the Milwaukee Brewers, from landing the two-time Cy Young Award winner. The Dodgers guaranteed they wouldn’t have to face him in October.
“I’m sure it’s in your head that teams are interested,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Sunday before the Dodgers’ 2-1 loss to the Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. “Definitely not a driver, but not nothing either. As far as my joy goes, I’m very happy that it’s Skubal versus Miz and not Miz and Skubal (for the Brewers) in the next two.”
That feeling was even more true when the Dodgers dropped Game 1 at American Family Field, despite forcing “Miz” — NL Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski — out of the game in just 4⅓ innings, and despite having Skubal, who struck out seven in five innings but allowed two runs in a fine effort, on their side.
“That’s our job, to try to get the starter out early, especially when you’re facing a guy like him,” said left fielder Teoscar Hernández, who recorded two hits against Misiorowski. “I thought we did a really good job, but we just didn’t get the job done when we needed to with guys in scoring position.”
The Dodgers hit three late-inning double plays in the first five innings and left a total of nine men on base, one of six with runners in scoring position.
In a role reversal, the Dodgers, who scored almost exclusively via home run in the first inning, took the lead thanks to a pesky approach at the plate.
Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani opened the second inning with a four-pitch walk. Then Hernández and Andy Pages hit opposite-field singles to move Ohtani around the bases and give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
Taking a similar approach to the one they deployed against Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale in Game 3 of the Division Series, the Dodgers forced Misiorowski to throw 35 pitches in the inning – 10 alone to Kyle Tucker, who drew a walk.
By the third inning, Misiorowski’s fastball velocity, which had reached 104 mph, had dropped to double digits. And even though the Dodgers didn’t score again against him, they continued to increase his pitch count. By the time he got out with one out in the fifth, it was at 94.
The Brewers, known for their pesky nature, instead tied the score with one hit against Skubal. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brice Turang placed the barrel of his bat on an inside sinker and lifted it over the fence in left center, into the Brewers bullpen.
“A 2-0 lead, I mean, I’ll live with that, left to left,” Skubal said. “He put a good swing on it. The first at bat, he broke his bat (on similar pitch), ground ball.”
Although the Brewers had players capable of hitting homers, they took the lead in the next inning with a streak more closely tied to their identity.
Skubal walked Garrett Mitchell on five pitches. Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt put him in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. And then Luis Lara sent a grounder single to the middle of the infield to give it the go-ahead run.
“The first march simply cannot happen,” Skubal said. “It gives them the opportunity to create something, and ultimately that’s all they needed today.”
Skubal battled through traffic to get out of the inning without giving up another run. But in such a close match, it marked the end of his tenure.
The atmosphere at American Family Field added something extra to this close fight. The home crowd was perhaps the loudest (until jaw-dropping cheers during the final takedown) when they challenged a shaky call against Misiorowski. It looked like he had knocked out Hernández to end the fourth inning, but Hernández got second base instead.
Brewers’ Jake Bauers is thrown out by Dodgers second baseman Kiké Hernández after being thrown out by pitcher Alex Vesia.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
That play was still etched in their collective memory when Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia threw out Jake Bauers at first base. Brewers fans shouted “Bulk!” » over and over again.
The relievers battled to a scoreless tie, with the Dodgers’ final drive falling flat after Tucker and rookie Josue De Paula tied the game with two outs against Brewers closer Trevor Megill. Mookie Betts sent a fly ball toward the warning track, momentarily silencing the crowd until Mitchell closed his glove around it. So the advantage the Brewers gained against Skubal held.
“You can’t go into a long series against a team that has the best record in baseball and expect to only win four,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “It’s going to be a long series. We knew it was going to happen. We had our chances, but they made plays, made pitches when they needed to. We just got to get back to squared. We’ve got our guy that’s there (Monday), who we trust without a doubt, and we’ve got to win a baseball game.”
That guy is right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched a complete game last year at American Family Field in Game 2 of the NLCS.
The road won’t get much easier for the Dodgers’ offense on Monday, when it faces right-hander Logan Henderson, who held them to one run in seven innings when the Brewers came to Los Angeles in August. But imagine if, instead, the Brewers had outbid the Dodgers and had to go through Skubal first.
“It would look really different,” Roberts said Saturday. “What those guys do is they had the best record in baseball. Certainly, when you’re talking about a seven-game series, seeing Tarik on the other side…the series would be a lot different.”
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