The trouble with buying the best pitcher on the market at the deadline is that he can't hit, field, or pitch relief the same night he starts. The Dodgers learned that the hard way Tuesday, falling 10-5 to the Cubs at Wrigley Field in what was supposed to be Tarik Skubal's coming-out party.
Instead, Los Angeles dropped its fifth straight game, a skid that started before the two-time AL Cy Young winner even put on the uniform. The Dodgers gave up River Ryan, Zyhir Hope and Brady Smith to pry Skubal away from Detroit. Andrew Friedman framed the trade as a statement of intent: "We were of the mind to be aggressive for one player, and fortunately we were able to line up." That quote will age either as brilliant foresight or the setup line for a bad joke. Right now it's leaning toward the joke.
This loss has less to do with Skubal than with a lineup that's gone cold at the worst possible time. Monday's series opener was already a 10-5 defeat, with Seiya Suzuki, Carson Kelly, Kevin Alcántara and Michael Busch all going deep off Justin Wrobleski, an All-Star who hadn't lost since May. Tuesday landed on the exact same scoreline, which tells you the Cubs' lineup is clicking in a way the Dodgers haven't answered. You can bring in the best arm in baseball and it won't matter if your offense keeps no-showing on the road.
The Skubal trade was billed as a dynasty-caliber move, and the pressure to win now was baked in before he threw a single pitch in a Dodgers uniform. A losing streak that started before he arrived and kept going the night he debuted isn't the kind of thing that validates that gamble. If the Dodgers needed proof that one arm doesn't fix everything, Wrigley just gave it to them.
Give Javier Assad and the Cubs credit. They've now beaten the Dodgers by the same score twice in a row, and that's not luck, that's a team playing with confidence at home. Los Angeles has the talent to turn this around. But if I'm the front office, Tuesday night is a reminder that you can't trade your way out of a slump. You have to hit your way out of one, and right now this lineup isn't doing it.
