PHOENIX – It’s the ultimate luxury.
Over the next two days, the Dodgers will start two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal (on Monday) followed by two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (on Tuesday). According to MLB statistician Sarah Langs, it is only the 12th time in MLB history that one team has had two pitchers with multiple Cy Young Awards.
“It’s great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of being able to unleash Skub-Zilla on opponents, beginning with the Kansas City Royals. “On one side of it, you feel it as the home team because you feel the confidence of who you’re running out there. But on the other side, it seems daunting when you look at the probables and you see these Cy Young guys back-to-back. It’s a lot to take in as an offense. So it feels really good to have those two guys on our side.”
For Skubal, it will be his second start as a Dodger, first at Dodger Stadium. He was booed repeatedly and loudly during his debut start at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.
“Great atmosphere. The Cubs fanbase is awesome,” Skubal said after that start. “It’s a ton of fun to play in front of. And whether they’re rooting against you or for you, I love the fans.
“The fans are what create the environment. It’s a ton of fun to play in front of crowds like that. Even if they’re booing me or whatever it is, I think that’s what makes the game of baseball really fun, the competition really fun, and the atmosphere really fun. I’m sure that’s not going to be the only rowdy atmosphere on the road. I plan on pitching in front of those atmospheres for the rest of the season.”
Tuesday will be just Snell’s second start of the season. He opened the season on the Injured List, recovering from shoulder inflammation, went three innings against Atlanta on May 9 then underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow – the same procedure Skubal had in May.
“Now we’ve got Blake back. We’ve got Tarik here. We feel like we have the pieces of our starting pitching to go on a run,” Roberts said. “But you’ve also got to play good defense behind them; we’ve got to score runs. But it does feel like every night, we should have a good chance to win a ballgame.”
That becomes even more valuable in the postseason. The Dodgers rode their four starters (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Snell) to a World Series title last year and have now upgraded with the addition of Skubal.
“I think you have to win with starting pitching. You really do,” Roberts said. “I know in ‘24 we did it a different way. But starting pitching is kind of your backbone. To have those guys, regular season, postseason that’s a good foundation.”
DOUBLE DOWN
The Dodgers went into Sunday’s game leading the majors in batting average (.261), on-base percentage (.339) and OPS (.768) – and they have also hit into more double plays (98) than any other team.
“The game is constructed with 27 outs, right? Offensively, defensively, and it just makes life a lot more difficult when you give up those outs on the bases,” Roberts said of the drag on the offense from that statistic as well as poor decision-making on the bases. “We ground into the most double plays, so you’re taking outs off the table, two for one. And whether it’s getting doubled off, a bad decision on trying to get to third base with nobody out or two outs or getting kicked off, those things cut into opportunities offensively, and so we’ve got to curtail that soon.”
The fact that the Dodgers put more runners on base than anyone creates more opportunities for double plays. They also have the oldest position-player group in MLB and don’t run aggressively to stay out of double plays (they rank 28th with 45 stolen bases).
“It’s not age,” Roberts said. “It’s not about putting guys in motion, because you start doing things just to do things and when a guy swings and misses and gets thrown out by 10 feet, that’s a bad process. You have to layer it on who the hitter is, the contact ability; who the pitcher is, the swing-and-miss rate; who the runner is. So there’s a lot of people that can look at the rate that we hit into double plays and have thoughts, but they’re not thought through.
“I think for me ….(I) don’t watch the Diamondbacks a lot, but just even when we do play them, they don’t hit into a lot of double plays (71) because their intent with guys on first base is a certain intent to stay inside the baseball, to not pull the ball on the ground. My thought is our guys need to do a better job at understanding what the pitcher is trying to do.”
NEXT SHO
For the first time in 17 days, Ohtani was on the field before Saturday’s game playing catch in the outfield out to about 90 feet. It is the first step in a throwing progression that is expected to eventually get Ohtani back on the mound in games.
Ohtani is expected to play catch again on Monday but Roberts said “it’s a day-to-day thing with Shohei” and there is no specific target for Ohtani to get back on a mound to throw a bullpen session.
ALSO
Glasnow, a right-hander, made the second start on his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Glasnow has been out since early May with lower back pain. He pitched two scoreless innings for Class-A Ontario earlier this week in his first rehab start.
UP NEXT
Royals (LHP Noah Cameron, 6-8, 4.37 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Tarik Skubal, 7-6, 2.81 ERA), Monday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM