SAN FRANCISCO — Tarik Skubal delivered exactly the kind of final regular-season start the Dodgers wanted to see.
After showing flashes without consistently reaching his best during his first two months in Los Angeles, the Dodgers’ headline trade-deadline addition rediscovered his two-time Cy Young Award-winning form Friday night. Skubal overwhelmed the San Francisco Giants in a 2-0 victory, offering a promising glimpse of what he could bring to the postseason.
“That was the best we’ve seen,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He was on a mission tonight. You could see it. Everything was working … Incredibly good.”
Skubal worked seven scoreless innings, striking out 10 while permitting only three hits and issuing no walks. He needed just 75 pitches to complete one of the most efficient dominant outings of his career.
The only performance that may have surpassed Friday’s line came in Skubal’s lone career complete-game shutout, against the Cleveland Guardians last season.
“It’s just pitching aggressive and challenging them,” Skubal said. “Tough park to hit in. And the wind seemed like it was blowing in, kind of keeping fly balls in the yard tonight. So just challenge them and see how far they can hit it.”
The Dodgers already understood the type of impact Skubal could make.
When Los Angeles acquired him from the Tigers two months ago, the organization viewed him as the deadline’s most important available addition — a pitcher capable of meaningfully improving its World Series chances.
His transition to the Dodgers, however, had not been entirely smooth.
Skubal acknowledged that he had sometimes been “a little too fine,” and he recorded only one walk-free outing across his first nine starts with Los Angeles. His first scoreless appearance came two weeks earlier in Cincinnati, where he held the Reds without a run for seven innings and struck out nine. But in his next outing, he surrendered four runs over five innings against the Giants, visibly frustrated with himself before spending several days away from the club on the bereavement list.
“I’m not attacking the way I know how to attack,” he said. “My stuff’s too good to give a guy a free pass.”
The rematch at Oracle Park on Friday unfolded much differently.
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Los Angeles gave Skubal an early cushion in the second inning, when Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages launched back-to-back home runs within a span of three batters. For Pages, it was his first homer since returning the previous week from a fractured hand.
With that support behind him, the 29-year-old Northern California native took control and never gave the Giants an opening.
Skubal repeatedly challenged San Francisco with his fastball — reaching 100 mph for only the third time this season — and a sharply commanded changeup. He also opened with a first-pitch strike against 21 of the 23 batters he faced.
“First-pitch strikes [are important],” Skubal said. “Today’s game gets very analytical. I think when I’m really good, it’s at the old-school stuff. Like getting ahead, winning your 1-1 counts, getting guys out in three or four pitches.”
Asked whether he felt he had “bullied” the Giants’ struggling lineup, Skubal smiled.
“I’m not going to use that word,” he joked. “That’ll make a pretty good headline if I say that.”
The outing closed Skubal’s regular season with a 12-7 record and a 2.72 ERA. Since joining the Dodgers, he has gone 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA across 10 starts, earning a victory in each of his last four decisions.
“Those numbers are great,” he said. “I think there’s just some things where I could be better. Today was a really good day. But I’ve also had some kind of poor performances … I think there’s always room for improvement. I’m not really satisfied with anything I’ve accomplished so far.”
The only caveat to Friday’s gem: The Giants are trotting out what is effectively a Triple-A lineup, as they limp to the end of a dismal 2026 season in which all of their big stars first struggled, then got hurt.
Still, there are worse ways to enter the playoffs than off the back of what was arguably his most complete start all season.
Friday, after all, was exactly what the Dodgers were envisioning when they traded for Skubal at the deadline.
They will be hoping it’s the start of more things to come in October.