Dodgers' Tarik Skubal Sends Blunt Message After Latest Struggles

“I was just frustrated with the pitch count through five,” Skubal, who threw a career-high 109 pitches, told reporters. “Just need to be more efficient. I’m glad Doc gave me an opportunity to go back out there for the sixth.

“I’m not going to be perfect out there, but yeah, I need to be more efficient,” he added. “That’s the standard that I hold myself to, is pitching deeper into ballgames and giving our team a chance to win every time out.”

Skubal is now 0-2 as a Dodgers starter, and has thrown an average of 96.3 pitches per game across his three starts. The two-time Cy Young winner averaged under 90 pitches per game over his 16 starts prior to his departure from Detroit.

“It’s not acceptable,” Skubal said about his poor efficiency. “It’s not the standard of what I think I’m capable of in this league. So, I just need to be better.”

While Skubal didn't hold back on his performance, his manager took a much more optimistic tone.

"Man, it feels good every time he's out there. It really does," Dave Roberts said after the game. "And I just still don't think we've seen his best, which is a good thing for us."

Another good thing for the Dodgers would have been winning one more game over the Brewers. Milwaukee clinched the end-of-season tiebreaker over LA, meaning the Dodgers need to have a better record than the Brewers to get home-field advantage against them.

The Brewers are currently 2.5 games up on the Dodgers, which due to the tiebreaker is basically 3.5 games.

“I really wanted to win this game, because it could matter,” Roberts said. “But we didn’t. So now, we have to move forward. But I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us.”

A more efficient Skubal could help the Dodgers reclaim a top two spot in the NL, especially as their starting rotation continues to work towards being at full strength.

Shohei Ohtani has not pitched since July 3 as he works through knee and biceps injuries. Tyler Glasnow continues to work towards a return from a lower back injury. And, most recently, Justin Wrobleski — who is in the middle of the first All-Star season of his career — was placed on the 15-day injured list with forearm inflammation after Saturday's loss to the Brewers.

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