The Dodgers will send Tarik Skubal to the mound on Monday and Blake Snell on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals, lining up two pitchers with multiple Cy Young Awards on consecutive days. Skubal will make his second start as a Dodger and his first at Dodger Stadium, while Snell is set for his second start of the season after opening on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
That kind of pairing does not come around often. MLB statistician Sarah Langs said it is only the 12th time in league history that one team has had two pitchers with multiple Cy Young Awards, which is why this Royals Vs Dodgers matchup is drawing so much attention before either game is played.
Skubal’s last outing showed why the setting matters. In his debut start on Tuesday at Wrigley Field in Chicago, he was booed repeatedly and loudly, and he said afterward that crowds like that are part of what makes baseball fun. “I plan on pitching in front of those atmospheres for the rest of the season,” he said, a line that fits neatly with a Dodger Stadium debut that should bring a different kind of energy.
The Dodgers also need the starts to hold up on the field. They entered Sunday leading the majors in batting average at.261, on-base percentage at.339 and OPS at.768, but they also had grounded into 98 double plays, more than any other team. Dave Roberts said the club feels like it has the pieces of its starting pitching to go on a run, but he also pointed to the same problem that keeps showing up in the offense: extra outs that cut into scoring chances.
That is the part that makes this series more than a pitching novelty. The Dodgers rode four starters, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Snell, to a World Series title last year, and Roberts said starting pitching remains the backbone of what they do in both the regular season and postseason. For now, the question is less about the names than the sequence: whether Skubal and Snell can deliver back-to-back quality starts and give the Dodgers the kind of runway their offense has not always protected for them.
