Dodgers rally to beat Royals in Tarik Skubal’s home debut

LOS ANGELES — With the stakes raised and patience subsiding, the Dodgers returned home Monday with just enough offense to rise to the occasion.

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In his home debut, left-hander Tarik Skubal battled through five innings while leaving enough runway for the Dodgers to pull off a 6-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals to begin a telling seven-game homestand that with a visit from the Milwaukee Brewers ahead.

Max Muncy ripped a bases-clearing, three-run double in the sixth inning for the Dodgers’ first lead of the night and Freddie Freeman delivered the decisive blow with a go-ahead RBI single in the seventh.

Manager Dave Roberts is trying to take the intensity to the next level, expressing his displeasure over possessing the third-best record in the National League following a 1-8 stretch going back to July 31.

“Reset. Turn it on,” Roberts said before Monday’s game. “Just kind of thinking about it on the plane (Sunday), we’re a wild-card (round) team right now. We gotta get going and play with urgency. I think we gotta make sure we don’t get ahead of the playoff situation, and talking about winning now, winning today, winning tomorrow.”

It’s a fine line. The Dodgers are built with stoic veterans who strive to put in a professional approach each night. The turbo button is not a regular feature in the gameplan.

“I understand what Doc’s saying,” said Freeman, who seemed to show a sense of urgency with three hits. “Baseball’s a little different. I can’t go out there and swing harder and throw harder. That’s just not how it works. But tonight was just a good baseball game that we played tonight. So keep it going tomorrow.”

The Dodgers do lead the National League West, but only the top two division winners get a bye into the division series, leaving the third to prove itself among the wild-card teams. The Dodgers took that route last season while winning their second consecutive title.

“I think (General Manager Brandon Gomes) walked through and said we have a better record than we did the last two years at this point,” Freeman said. “So we got a good group that’s been together for a long time (and) one that knows how to win. There’s gonna be no panic out of this clubhouse.”

When Skubal arrived just before the deadline, there was a nation-wide groan over the rich getting richer. And yet a stagnant offense and a leaky bullpen were no match over the past two weeks for a trio of streaky teams in the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks.

The arrival of the last-place Royals appeared to be a jumping off point for a post-All-Star break run only to have the theme of the last two weeks continue in the opening innings.

“I think that part of the, ‘We’re gonna be OK and we’re good,’ that’s not good enough,” Roberts said. “Clearly it’s not, given how we’ve played over the last month. So we put ourselves in this position. A lot of talent. But I think across the board, we need to play with more urgency. And our guys know that.”

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Acquired Aug. 2 as the biggest prize of the trade deadline, Skubal continues to work on a comfort level with the Dodgers. In his first start with the club last week against the Chicago Cubs, the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner gave up two runs on four hits over six innings while absorbing the loss.

On Monday, he gave up three runs on four hits over five innings and struggled to put away hitters with spotty command on his fastball.

“I kinda sprayed the ball a little bit,” Skubal said. “That’s kind of unusual for me, especially with fastball command and stuff like that. But I thought I competed well and gave our team a chance to win. Our offense picked me up big time, defense picked me up big time, and the bullpen was outstanding tonight.”

Pitching in front of Dodgers fans for the first time, Skubal acknowledged the ovation from the left field corner as he went to the bullpen to warm up before the game. The cheers only grew as he took the mound in his home whites for the first time.

“Great environment. The fans, they were great,” Skubal said. “… It was special.”

But the energy was subdued from the outset. Nick Loftin led off the game with a single for the Royals before Bobby Witt Jr. grounded into a force out then stole second base. No. 3 hitter Jac Caglianone followed with an RBI single.

The Dodgers scored a pair of runs in their half of the third on an RBI double from Shohei Ohtani and an RBI single from Freeman.

On his bobblehead night, Muncy appeared to strike the decisive blow in the sixth inning with a go-ahead, three-run double for a 5-3 lead. But the Royals countered immediately in the seventh against left-hander Jack Dreyer when Kyle Isbel hit a two-run home run for a 5-5 tie.

Ohtani led off the seventh with a single against Alex Lange, stole second base and Freeman singled to right for a 6-5 lead.

“I love those situations,” Freeman said. “More times than not, you’ll probably fail, but tonight, I was able to come through. Shohei’s stolen base, huge in that moment. So just getting 90 feet, getting in scoring position, able to get the hit. We all got big hits tonight.”

Right-hander Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth inning for his first save since returning from the injured list on July 29 and his sixth of the season. He had a pair of blown saves over the weekend against the Diamondbacks.

“The stuff was good from pitch one as opposed to feeling his way into the inning and creating stress for himself,” Roberts said of Diaz. “Really good to see that.”

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