The Dodgers' blockbuster trade-deadline addition got a rude welcome. Skubal, who won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards with the Tigers before Detroit shipped him to LA in a stunning deadline deal, made his first start for his new team at Wrigley Field against the Cubs -- and it did not go well. The two-time Cy Young winner opened strong, striking out Pete Crow-Armstrong to lead off the game, but the Cubs offense had other plans for the rest of the afternoon.
Skubal opened his Dodgers debut by blowing a 99 mph sinker past Pete Crow-Armstrong for a strikeout.
That was about as good as it got for Skubal. Kyle Tucker, who spent the 2025 season in Chicago before signing a 4-year, $240 million deal with the Dodgers this offseason, made his return to Wrigley memorable by going deep off his former ballpark's new opponent -- his 10th homer of the season, a no-doubt shot with an exit velocity of 98.7 mph.
Kyle Tucker, back at his old home ballpark in Dodgers gray, launched a solo homer to put LA up early.
The Cubs answered fast. Dansby Swanson tied the game right back up in the bottom of the 3rd, turning around a Skubal pitch at 102.8 mph off the bat for his 17th home run of the season and sending Wrigley into a frenzy.
Dansby Swanson answered Tucker's blast with a 102.8 mph rocket off Skubal to tie the game in the 3rd.
Things only got weirder from there. By the 8th inning, with the Cubs firmly in control, Shohei Ohtani took an inside fastball off the body from Cubs reliever Zeferjahn -- an odd coda to a day that was already spiraling for the visitors from LA.
Shohei Ohtani got plunked by a Cubs reliever in the 8th inning with Chicago holding a comfortable lead.
It's a rough first impression for a Dodgers team that, with Skubal now in the fold alongside Ohtani, became the first club in MLB history to roster a reigning two-time MVP and a reigning two-time Cy Young winner in the same season. The Tigers picked up outfield prospect Zyhir Hope and pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith in the deal, betting Skubal walks in free agency after this season anyway. For the Cubs, beating one of the sport's most decorated arms on his first try in a Dodgers uniform is exactly the kind of Wrigley statement game that gets circled on a scoreboard for the rest of the summer.