Skubal dominates Giants in under a two-hour display

SAN FRANCISCO — The good news for the San Francisco Giants is there’s only two games left in their 2026 season.

The bad news is those two games are against the reigning back-to-back World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants potentially could end the season on a five-game losing streak as they have clinched the fourth worst record in Major League Baseball.

On a crisp Friday evening, Tarik Skubal made quick work of San Francisco (the game ended after just 113 minutes) with seven shutout innings and 10 strikeouts as LA beat SF 2-0 at Oracle Park.

In what’s been a predominantly minor league lineup this month for the Giants, Skubal, who was acquired by Los Angeles at this year’s Trade Deadline from the Detroit Tigers for three low end prospects, dominated the young Giants who managed only three hits off the back-to-back reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.

San Francisco was shutout for the 13th time this season, the eighth most this season in the league. It’s the most shutouts the Giants have had in a season since 2023. The only game that was faster than tonight at Oracle Park was back on May 9, 2004, against the Pittsburgh Pirates (109 minutes).

The Dodgers are gearing up for an extended postseason run in attempting to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees did it from 1998-2000. The Giants on the other hand are looking at what prospects have a legitimate shot at making the Opening Day roster in 2027.

One of those prospects was starting pitcher Yunior Marte, a six-foot six-inch 236-pound right-hander from the Dominican Republic. Marte pitched five strong innings for manager Tony Vitello as he gave up two moonshot home runs to Teoscar Hernandez and Andy Pages in the second inning. Overall Marte gave up just six hits while only walking one batter and striking out four including superstar Shohei Ohtani twice.

Marte said after the game, he’s going to back to his homeland to recover and then begin working out to get ready for spring training. His goal is to make the Opening Day roster and hopefully be in the starting rotation for San Francisco. He will not take part in the Arizona Fall League.

Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott closed out the final two innings for Los Angeles with Scott recording his 24th save of the season in a one-two-three ninth inning

When asked what has Vitello learned about himself in his first season of being a major league baseball manager, Vitello stayed away from the negativity and offered up a couple of positives.

“I guess one thing that was thrown at me so many times, there’s a bunch of answers…you know we’re in this setting now, but it gets tired for people to hear,” said Vitello. “So, I’ll add in a new answer, I guess. We’re almost at the finish line and we talked about it back here, that it is a contest of energy, conservation and things like that for the players. And we gotta do a good job at spacing those things out so guys are somewhat fresh towards the end of the year.”

Vitello iterated his desire to keep playing baseball and having to take punches throughout the season to find out how mentally tough your baseball team is.

“I wish we had more games as we stand here. You have to be able to take punches to be able to play this sport. We’ve taken too many punches this year but can take a punch and can last the whole season. I’ve pointed out plenty of negatives, so I’m pointing out two positives,” Vitello said.

San Francisco sends out Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson to faceoff against former Giant Blake Snell in the second to last game of the season on Saturday September 26 at 1:05pm from Oracle Park.