DETROIT –– The first time Tarik Skubal laid eyes back upon Comerica Park on Friday, he scanned the scene with a smile.

It was three hours before first pitch, in the build-up to an emotional return to his old home stadium with the Tigers. It was less than a month since the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Dodgers, leading him to emerge on Friday from the unfamiliar visitor’s first-base clubhouse.

First, Skubal took his time looking around from the dugout.

Then, he climbed the stairs to the edge of the playing surface.

Tarik Skubal of the Los Angeles Dodgers leaves the dugout to pitch the first inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Friday, August 28, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan. Getty Images

In the distance, a group of his former Tigers teammates were warming up in the outfield, including ex-rotation partner Jackson Jobe. When they made eye contact, Skubal grinned and yelled his way, playfully flipping him a one-fingered hello.

For a brief moment, it all felt so normal.

Over the rest of Friday night, little else would for the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner.

“This is probably going to be the toughest one, I think, as far as emotions,” manager Dave Roberts said of Skubal’s homecoming start pregame. “He spent eight years here with these guys. Some of his best friends are on this ballclub still.”

Indeed, in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win over the Tigers, Skubal rode a wave of raw feelings through a six-inning, one-run, seven-strikeout start.

There were some pregame tears from the left-hander as he watched a scoreboard tribute video while walking out of the bullpen ahead of first pitch.

“I said I wasn’t gonna be [emotional],” he said, “but I’ve come to figure out I don’t really know myself that well.”

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Detroit Tigers during a baseball game Friday, August 28, 2026, in Detroit. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

There was one standing ovation from the crowd as he proceeded into the dugout, then another as he reappeared in the bottom of the first –– albeit, on that occasion, with what appeared to be a small smattering of boos, as well.

“With the last name ‘Scooob,’ you don’t know if they are boos or if they’re cheering for you,” he quipped. “So I’m gonna assume they were cheering for me.”

From there, Skubal displayed stretches of dominance in his outing, retiring 12 batters in a row after a double to lead off the night, and striking out the side in the third with trademark changeups and a 99 mph heater.

“I think I did a good job of keeping baseball, baseball,” he said. “Trying to compete and give our team a chance to win.”

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At the end, there was a surprisingly early hook from Roberts too, who removed Skubal at just 83 pitches after he gave up an RBI triple to Max Clark in the fifth and had to strand a leadoff single from Gleyber Torres to complete the sixth.

“Sort of predetermined [that] trying to shorten him was the idea for me,” Roberts said afterward, citing both the emotional toll of Friday’s circumstances as well as Skubal’s elevated 106 and 109 total pitch counts in his previous two outings. “But yeah, I mean, he did a great job, and it was good to see him get that welcome from the fans.”

As far as Friday’s result was concerned, Skubal’s start was crucial in helping the Dodgers bounce back from a sweep to the Braves earlier this week.

He kept the team in the game early, even as their offense failed to score any of the nine baserunners they generated through the first five innings. 

He ensured they stayed within striking distance later, making a pinch-hit RBI single from Miguel Rojas in the sixth and a two-out RBI single from Freddie Freeman in the eighth –– along with three scoreless innings from the bullpen –– enough to get the Dodgers back in the win column.

“It’d be nice to string together some offensive outbursts so we can feel confident going in [to the final stretch of the season before the playoffs],” Freeman said afterward. “But when you have the offensive group that we do and the pitching staff, we can just keep winning these close games and start getting going offensively just in the nick of time.”

“We need to get it going as a group,” he added. “It’s on us to figure out a way to score more than one to two runs a game.”

Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers hits an eighth-inning RBI single in front of Dillon Dingler of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Friday, August 28, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan. Getty Images

On Friday, though, such concerns were overshadowed by the spotlight cast on Skubal, who was the face of the Tigers franchise before being dealt to the Dodgers two days before the trade deadline.

Leading up to Friday’s start, the 29-year-old tried to absorb himself in his routine. 

He said he tried not to reflect back on his eight years in the Tigers organization, when he blossomed from a ninth-round draft pick to surprise top prospect to, all of a sudden over the last three seasons, the most dominant pitcher in the game.

“Obviously getting traded,” he said, “I’m trying to throw myself into being an LA Dodger.”

He didn’t preoccupy himself with thoughts about his potential reception, either, having become a somewhat polarizing figure in Detroit –– despite all he accomplished in his tenure –– by the time he was shipped out the door.

“I don’t try to predict much,” he said. “I try to be pretty present with how I live my life.”

Before the game, his new Dodgers teammates noticed his looseness, prompting Freeman to joke that “we call him the opposite of Kersh on start days.”

In Roberts’ afternoon address with reporters, he said he expected the night to be difficult for the left-hander, but also for Skubal to “stay within himself.”

“I just think it’s going to be a controlled sort of intensity,” Roberts added.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal smiles in the dugout against the Detroit Tigers during the first inning of a baseball game on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, in Detroit. AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Still, Skubal couldn’t help but glance up at the scoreboard as some of his career highlights played out in a pregame montage, prompting some tears he dried with a towel.

And even once the contest started, he felt a level of awkwardness seeing so many familiar faces in the batter’s box.

“It was weird seeing [catcher Dillon] Dingler in the box for sure,” he said, specifically. “That’s a weird at-bat, obviously with all the innings [we’ve worked together]. But yeah, it was good.”

To Roberts, the most important part of the evening was what it could mean for the future.

In the past month, Skubal has now gone through his trade, his Dodgers debut, his Dodger Stadium debut, and all the other hectic little moments that accompany a midseason change of employer.

Friday, in some ways, felt like the final step in that initial transition.

“This one I’m sure was marked on his calendar … Coming back to his old ballpark, there was a lot of heavy heart, emotions,” Roberts said. “So I think this was the last box he had to check. I think he’s got four or five starts with us. So now we can push forward and all feel good about it.”

Skubal certainly seemed ready for that too, as he recounted a sentimental –– and ultimately victorious –– night before a bloated media contingent in front of his locker afterward.

“Obviously it was different. Just coming here and staying at a hotel is weird. But I think it was good,” he said. “These games are special. I have a lot of good memories on that field … But we won. And that’s what matters to me.”