Tarik Skubal was prepared for Dodgers challenge by failure on the biggest stage

Tarik Skubal refers to the game only as Game 5.He doesn’t mention the year or the round of the playoffs in which it was played.Each of his previous two seasons ended in the fifth and final game of an American League Division Series, but it was obvious which one Skubal was referencing in a recent conversation with the California Post.Oct.

12, 2024: the Detroit Tigers against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland — or, as Skubal called it, the game in which he “failed on the biggest stage.”As painful as the experience was, Skubal said he now appreciates it.“I’m just not afraid of failure anymore,” he said.That mindset will be critical in the coming months. Since his trade from the Tigers, Skubal has made three starts for the Dodgers that he described as “not acceptable.” He will not only have to pitch better, he will have to do so in the country’s No.2 media market for a historic franchise with championship expectations.

(His next start will be Saturday at Dodger Stadium against the Pittsburgh Pirates.)The circumstances are entirely new to him, but Skubal has an idea of how he will deal with it based on what happened two years ago after he scaled the mound for the Tigers in a winner-takes-all Game 5 against the Guardians.The Tigers went ahead in the top of the fifth inning on a run-scoring single by Kerry Carpenter and were on their way to the AL Championship Series — only for disaster to strike.With the bases loaded, Skubal drilled José Ramírez to force in a run that leveled the game 1-1.

Skubal’s next pitch was a down-the-middle sinker that Lane Thomas blasted over the wall in left-field center. Grand slam.The Tigers went on to lose the game, and, by extension, the series.Skubal was crushed.“Two or three days, I thought about it a lot,” he said.

“I wasn’t really able to watch baseball at the time.”When he was able to start reflecting on the game, however, he realized there was no reason to be ashamed.His ...