SAN FRANCISCO -- Tarik Skubal was showing no signs of slowing down in what was shaping up to be his most dominant start as a Dodger. But after throwing seven scoreless innings on 75 pitches, the southpaw was shaking hands and receiving hugs in the visitors' dugout at Oracle Park.
Skubal struck out 10, gave up just three hits and faced two batters over the minimum in his final regular-season start on Friday night.
His pitch count was in such a good spot that he could have made a bid for the second "Maddux" of his career. But when the bottom of the eighth inning came around, Skubal remained in the dugout and Roki Sasaki relieved him on the mound.
“That was the best we’ve seen," manager Dave Roberts said. "He was on a mission tonight. You could see it. Everything was working. He just went after those guys and did a fantastic job."
While Roberts has maintained that the Dodgers won't approach their final games of the season differently with the No. 2 postseason seed locked in, the 2-0 win over the Giants was an example of how having nothing left to play for changes the calculus of in-game decisions.
With five days off before the NL Division Series begins on Oct. 3 at Dodger Stadium, Roberts isn't necessarily looking to use this weekend for load management. But these final games are the Dodgers' last opportunity to try out players in their postseason roles in a lower-stakes environment.
Had this game taken place a week ago, Skubal may have stayed in to finish off his gem. But the Dodgers had already planned on having Sasaki pitch on Friday, and with only two additional games remaining for him to prepare for his postseason bullpen role, they opted not to deviate from that plan.
Sasaki got his work in, tossing a 1-2-3 eighth inning with two strikeouts in his second appearance back from the injured list. Tanner Scott closed out the victory, the Dodgers' 98th of the season -- which could be a hint at how both leverage arms will be used in the postseason.
"It’s better to have as many guys as you have confidence in in leverage," Roberts said. "So it just allows us to deploy guys whenever we need to."
For much of Skubal's two months as a Dodger, both he and the team maintained that they had not seen him at his best on the mound. Not only was Friday his best performance yet with L.A., but it came against a team that had frustrated him just six days earlier.
Last Saturday, Skubal lasted only five innings while allowing four runs against the Giants at Dodger Stadium. He bemoaned his lack of fastball command, which he believed was the main factor behind the disappointing results.
Skubal didn't just have command of his fastball on Friday. He had command of everything, throwing 60 of his 75 pitches for strikes and going 21-for-23 in first-pitch strikes. He generated 21 whiffs on 43 swings (48.8%), including a season-high 12 on his fastball.
"I think it's the key to who I am. I think it makes me who I am," Skubal said. "I don't know how many pitches I threw tonight, but felt like there were only like 14 or 15 balls out of however many throws. … I'm not going to do that every time, but I think that just speaks to conviction and the pitch-calling."
Said Giants manager Tony Vitello: "He’s going to come right at you, so maybe we could have been a little more aggressive early. But the bottom line is, he was sharper than the other night [in L.A.], and maybe we weren’t as sharp."
While Skubal received minimal run support -- solo homers from Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages in the second inning -- he had no issues holding the line.
Along with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, Skubal is part of the four-man gauntlet the Dodgers will run out in October. In his final tuneup, he looked postseason-ready, and then some.
"Once the months change and the playoffs start, nothing matters," Skubal said. "It's just about winning that game, and that's how I treat every single start. Because I'm just trying to put our team in a position to win a baseball game, and that won't change from today and whenever my next start is."