The Dodgers' problems are bigger than Tarik Skubal

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers acquired Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline to change games like this one.

Instead, on Sunday afternoon, Skubal looked like a pitcher still trying to find the version of himself the Dodgers thought they were getting, even though, in the end, he did enough to give them a chance.

The Dodgers lost 6-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium, dropping three of four games to the best team in baseball. They scored only 10 runs in the series, went 5-10 in August and, once again, left the ballpark with more questions about their offense than their pitching.

Skubal was hardly the biggest problem Sunday. But he knows he can be better.

He allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits over six innings, striking out seven and walking two. The bigger story was the 109 pitches it took him to get there, a career high.

From the first inning, the pitch count was something to monitor.

Skubal needed 15 pitches in the first, 33 in the second and eight in the third. He used 11 in the fourth, bringing his total to 67 pitches before he even entered the fifth inning.

Then, with two outs in the fifth, Jackson Chourio battled him to a full count before doubling. Jake Bauers followed with an RBI single, giving Milwaukee a 2-1 lead.

Skubal walked off the mound visibly frustrated.

For the first time since Game 1 of last year's American League Wild Card Series, he had surpassed 100 pitches in a start. And then, perhaps most importantly, he came back for the sixth.

He struck out the side. He even reached 99 mph.

Ben Rortvedt was asked whether the velocity was a sign that Skubal was tiring.

“No. That’s the competitor he is.”

That sequence probably said as much about Skubal as anything else Sunday. The frustration wasn't about being removed. It was about knowing he had made the inning harder on himself than it needed to be.

“I think I was just frustrated with the pitch count through five,” Skubal said. “I need to be more efficient, and I’m glad Doc gave me an opportunity to go back out there for the sixth.”

That's the uncomfortable truth about Skubal's first three Dodgers starts. The results have been good enough to win, but the process hasn't consistently matched the expectations.

He has gone five innings in one start and six in the other two.

“My last outing was five, the one before that was six, that's just not acceptable, it's not the standard of what I think I'm capable of in this league,” Skubal said.

That is an important distinction.

The Dodgers didn't acquire Skubal because they needed a pitcher who could simply keep them in games. They acquired him because they believe he can dominate them.

Skubal believes that, too.

“I just have to be more consistent,” he said. “Continue to get quality contact on the ground, and sometimes, you need a little bit of luck.”

On Sunday, the Dodgers needed a lot more than that.

Their offense has become the more pressing concern.

Dave Roberts didn't mince words afterward.

“This has been cumulative,” Roberts said. “It's been a long time since we've been consistent offensively. Our pedigree, what we typically do, is control the zone, grind at-bats, create stress. We're not doing that.”

Then he made it even more blunt.

“This has been four, five, six weeks of below-average production from our offense. It's the truth.”

It is difficult to argue.

Max Muncy provided the early spark Sunday, tying the game in the fourth with his 24th home run. Since the All-Star break, Muncy has hit seven home runs, continuing to establish himself as the home-run leader at Dodger Stadium.

But even Muncy couldn't hide the larger problem.

“Today really sucked. It was a big game, we kinda needed to win this one, and we didn't,” he said.

The Dodgers finally got another run in the ninth when Andy Pages hit his 21st home run of the season, his eighth against a left-handed pitcher in 2026.

That was it. Two runs against Milwaukee's pitching staff weren't going to be enough.

And then there is Kyle Tucker.

At this point, his struggles at Dodger Stadium are no longer something that can be dismissed as a slow stretch.

Tucker went 0-for-19 during this homestand. He is now hitting .189/.286/.272 at Dodger Stadium this season.

For a player who signed a four-year, $240 million contract, those numbers are impossible to ignore. The Dodgers didn't pay Tucker that kind of money to disappear in the middle of their lineup. They paid him to be one of the players who makes an offense like this go.

Instead, he has become part of the problem.

Sunday offered an especially painful example. With the Dodgers already trailing, Tucker tracked a deep fly ball to the warning track and couldn't come up with it. Tommy Edman then misplayed a ground ball while trying to make a quick throw home.

The boos returned to Dodger Stadium. It was an ugly ending to an ugly series.

And it underscored how little margin for error this offense is giving the pitching staff.

The Dodgers had the tying run at the plate in the eighth inning, but Shohei Ohtani grounded into a double play. Milwaukee eventually pulled away, and by the ninth, the game had become a collection of defensive mistakes and missed opportunities.

Roberts wanted this game badly.

“I really wanted to win this game because it could matter, but we didn't, so now we gotta move forward,” he said. “I hope it doesn't come back to bite us.”

That's the bigger concern.

A team can survive a bad weekend. It can survive a player going through a slump. It can survive a pitcher needing a little time to adjust after being acquired at the deadline.

But the Dodgers aren't dealing with one isolated problem.

Their offense has been inconsistent for weeks. Tucker isn't producing at home. Their pitching staff is being asked to operate without much run support. And against a team like Milwaukee, which has shown why it owns the best record in baseball, those deficiencies get exposed quickly.

Skubal's afternoon was frustrating, but there was something encouraging in it, too.

He reached a career-high 109 pitches, walked off angry after the fifth and then came back to strike out the side in the sixth. The stuff is still there. The competitiveness is still there.

Now comes the harder part: turning that stuff into efficient dominance.

The Dodgers head to Colorado for a three-game series with the Rockies beginning Monday. After Thursday's off day, they return home Friday to face the Pittsburgh Pirates.

They need more than a change of scenery. They need their offense to wake up. They need Tucker to start looking like the player they paid $240 million to be.

And they need Skubal to become the pitcher they believed was worth paying a massive price to acquire.