The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 2-0 after a dominant showing from star pitcher Tarik Skubal.
Tarik Skubal’s stellar day
After an admittedly rough outing against these same Giants a week ago, Skubal looked like he was done playing games and wanted to show what he could do.
Skubal struck out 10 batters on just 75 pitches, allowed only three hits, and gave up no walks.
When digging under the hood, the Giants were lucky to even get that much off Skubal. The southpaw allowed only two hard hits on the night, and he wasn’t shy about attacking the Giants hitters.
Skubal faced 23 batters; he threw 21 first-pitch strikes and had 61% of pitches end in the strike zone, a crazy rate for a starter.
Overall, 80% of his pitches were strikes, with a 48% chase rate, and he allowed no damage despite a 63% zone swing rate.
Given his low pitch count, Skubal could have finished the game with a complete-game shutout, but the Dodgers wanted to give their relievers some work.
Roki Sasaki came in and delivered a strong one-inning cameo, recording two punchouts and allowing no baserunners.
Tanner Scott had his own clean inning to earn the save, striking out two.
Will Smith, Andy Pages keep rolling
Smith went 3-for-4, continuing his momentum in what will be very encouraging for the postseason. The Dodgers just got Smith back a handful of weeks ago, and his experience means he won’t need too much time to warm up.
However, Smith did not drive in any runs. Both of the Dodgers’ runs came on home runs, one by Teoscar Hernandez and another by Andy Pages.
Pages added another hit, going 2-for-3, and stacking multiple good offensive days since coming off the injured list.
The offense was very quiet overall, with just seven hits and a walk, but most of these players are trying to get to next week and rest up for the postseason.
