Dodgers 2, Tigers 1: Skubal Beats His Old Club, Freeman Singles Home the Lead

First start in the other dugout. One run. Then Freeman ended it.

August 28, 2026 – Detroit – Tarik Skubal walked to the Comerica Park mound in a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform. The crowd mixed cheers with a few boos. He had been a Tiger until the August trade. This was the first time he pitched here as a visitor.

He threw six innings, one run, four hits, zero walks, seven strikeouts. Freddie Freeman singled Teoscar Hernández home with two outs in the eighth. Los Angeles won 2-1.

Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 with a walk. Mookie Betts had one hit. The game did not need a homer. It needed Skubal to last six and Freeman to find center field.

Torres doubled. Then Skubal retired 12 in a row.

Gleyber Torres led off with a double. Skubal retired the next 12, including a strikeout of the side in the third. Drew Anderson matched him for a while: 4 2/3 scoreless, five strikeouts, five walks. Comerica had zeroes through four.

Eduardo Valencia doubled to lead off the fifth. Two outs later, Max Clark tripled to left. 1-0 Tigers. That was the only run Skubal allowed, 83 pitches, and the only time Detroit's lineup looked like it remembered who used to pitch for them.

Miguel Rojas tied it in the sixth with an RBI single off Drew Sommers, scoring Enrique Hernández. 1-1. Evan Phillips struck out the side in the seventh. Brock Stewart and Alex Vesia got through a messy eighth. Jacob Waguespack took the loss: one run in 1 1/3.

Two outs in the eighth, and a single that traveled far enough

Hernández was on in the eighth. Freeman lined one to center, sharp enough that Clark could not cut it down. 2-1. Kyle Tucker had a hit, two walks, and a steal and did not need to be the hero. The Dodgers had nine hits. The Tigers had five.

Tanner Scott threw a scoreless ninth, two strikeouts, his 20th save in 22 chances. Spencer Torkelson went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Detroit's 1-2 loss was a night the old ace did not blink and the new clubhouse got the last run.

Skubal was a ninth-round pick out of Seattle University in 2018. He spent his whole career in Detroit until the trade. Friday he left with a no-decision and a win for the team that acquired him. That is a strange box score and a clean story.

AthX Engine scored the six innings, not the decision

AthX Engine put Skubal at 21 pitching fantasy points. Los Angeles finished at 6 team FP. Detroit finished at -1. A 2-1 win with one RBI single in the eighth does not print a loud team card. The pitcher board still saw six innings, seven strikeouts, and one run against the club that used to pay him.

Fantasy points measure the night. They are not share price.

What's next

Blake Snell is lined up against Keider Montero on Saturday. Los Angeles just beat Detroit with the pitcher Detroit used to run out every fifth day. The Tigers have to score more than one against the rest of that rotation.

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*Sources: MLB Gameday, ESPN recap, MLB schedule, AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*