CHICAGO -- The boos rained down at Wrigley Field long before Tarik Skubal had even thrown his first pitch as a Dodger.
In his first career visit to the Friendly Confines, the newly acquired Dodgers southpaw was met with the full force of Cubs fans' displeasure, starting when he went out to the visitors' bullpen to warm up before the game. The boos grew louder still during lineup announcements, and crescendoed as he took the mound donning L.A.'s road blues.
The hottest commodity on the market ahead of this year's Trade Deadline, Skubal was desired by many teams and fanbases, including the Cubs. Over the weekend, the back-to-back champion Dodgers, loading up for a three-peat bid, went out and got him.
For most of the evening in his Dodgers debut on Tuesday, Skubal kept the home crowd at bay. But after allowing two runs in six innings, he was charged with the loss as L.A. fell, 5-1, to Chicago, extending its losing streak to a season-high five games.
"Going in and competing, I don't expect anything else," Skubal said of the hostile atmosphere. "As far as environments, I've pitched in plenty of them. I haven't actually made a home start in the postseason. They've all been on the road. I've pitched in pretty good environments, and I'd say that's up there with any of those postseason starts."
Skubal struck out six, walked two and allowed four hits in his first start since being traded from the Tigers to the Dodgers two days before the Trade Deadline. While he wasn't his sharpest, throwing 51 of his 85 pitches for strikes, he still felt that his stuff was where he wanted it to be.
"When I was missing, I was missing in the areas that I was trying to go," Skubal said. "I probably should be a little better at first-pitch strikes. I think, especially second or third time through, I need to be better there. But the stuff coming out of hand was what I expect out of myself."
Skubal began his Dodgers tenure by freezing Pete Crow-Armstrong on a 99.1 mph sinker, the first of six straight outs to open the game. The third inning brought trouble, with Dansby Swanson taking Skubal deep to lead off the frame. Skubal gave up a single to Crow-Armstrong and issued his first walk of the night to Seiya Suzuki, but allowed no further damage that inning.
Skubal followed with two perfect innings, but got into another jam in the sixth. Suzuki drew another walk, and Alex Bregman doubled on a fly ball over the glove of right fielder Kyle Tucker to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Tommy Edman and Ben Rortvedt connected to cut down Suzuki at the plate, but a high chopper from Nico Hoerner allowed Bregman to score the go-ahead run.
"It’s a lot to handle, and you’ve got to kind of pick pitches at times," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "With the great ones, that’s what you have to do. You have to pick pitches. That’s kind of what Dansby did. You have to sell out for something. We did a good job kind of creating a couple other scoring opportunities. That’s how you have to beat guys like that."
After getting Tyrone Taylor to fly out to end the sixth inning, Skubal's night was over, as manager Dave Roberts felt no need to push him further after the stressful frame.
"Where we're at, I'm going to err on the side of being smart and cautious, and knowing that he can still give us more," Roberts said. "I'm going to push him. But tonight is not the night. I just felt that that extra inning wasn’t worth the squeeze.”
In the final two innings, the Cubs stacked another three runs on Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips and Edwin Díaz.
After winning their first four series after the All-Star break, the Dodgers have lost two in a row, getting swept by the Red Sox over the weekend and dropping their first two games to the Cubs. Skubal's performance could have been enough to be the stopper, but instead, L.A. will have to wait until Wednesday's finale in Chicago to try to end its skid.
"I think that you just got to kind of reset, flush it, find a way to win a game and not let it just compound," Roberts said. "But it never feels good to lose. … My focus right now is just forget about these last five games and be ready for tomorrow.”