Dodgers rally past Tigers after Tarik Skubal’s emotional Detroit homecoming

DETROIT –– The first time Tarik Skubal laid eyes upon Comerica Park again, he did it with a smile.

Three hours before first pitch on Friday, in the buildup to an emotional return to his old home ballpark a month after being traded to the Dodgers, Skubal emerged from an unfamiliar visiting clubhouse to scan the most familiar of ballpark settings.

First, he looked around from the dugout. 

Then, he climbed the stairs to the infield.

In the distance, a group of his former Tigers teammates were warming up in the outfield, including ex-rotation partner Jackson Jobe. When they made eye contact, Skubal grinned and yelled his way, playfully flipping him a one-fingered hello.

For a brief moment, it all felt so normal.

Over the rest of Friday night, little else would for the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner.

“This is probably going to be the toughest one, I think, as far as emotions,” manager Dave Roberts said of Skubal’s homecoming start pregame. “He spent eight years here with these guys. Some of his best friends are on this ballclub still.”

Indeed, in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Tigers, Skubal rode a wave of raw feelings through a six-inning, one-run, seven-strikeout start.

There was a chest-tap and, it appeared, some teary eyes from the left-hander as he watched a scoreboard tribute video while walking out of the bullpen ahead of first pitch.

There was one standing ovation from the crowd as he proceeded into the dugout before the game, then another as he reappeared in the bottom of the first to begin his first start against what had been — up until a blockbuster trade-deadline deal to the Dodgers four weeks ago — the only team he’d ever known.

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There were stretches of dominance in his outing, with Skubal retiring 12 batters in a row after a double to lead off the game and striking out the side in the third with trademark changeups and a 99 mph heater.

Then, after Max Clark slashed an RBI triple down the line in the fifth inning and Gleyber Torres was left stranded following a leadoff single in the sixth, there was an early hook from Roberts for his newly acquired rotation ace. Skubal had only thrown 83 pitches. But given the sentimental weight of the day, it had felt like much more.

“There’s going to be emotions, but I do think he’s going to stay within himself,” Roberts had predicted pregame. “It’s a familiar mound, familiar background, all that stuff. So I think he’s going to be back to himself.”

As far as Friday’s result was concerned, Skubal’s start was crucial in helping the Dodgers bounce back from a sweep to the Braves earlier this week.

He kept the team in the game early, even as its offense failed to score any of the nine baserunners it generated through the first five innings. 

He ensured they stayed within striking distance later, rendering a pinch-hit RBI single from Miguel Rojas in the sixth and a two-out RBI single from Freddie Freeman in the eighth — along with three scoreless innings from the bullpen — enough to get the Dodgers back in the win column.

Personally, though, Skubal’s day was always going to be about so much more given the raw feelings that remained from his pre-deadline departure. 

And even amid all the emotions, he delivered the kind of performance that made him so beloved in Detroit to begin with.