The Cubs spoiled Tarik Skubal's debut as a member of the Dodgers by defeating him to extend Los Angeles' losing streak to five games. Despite this, the most dominant pitcher in Major League Baseball today pitched well Tuesday night in Chicago.

Nico Hoerner broke a tie in the sixth inning with an infield hit off Skubal and later hit a home run off Puerto Rican reliever Edwin Díaz to finish off the Cubs' 5-1 victory, which left the Dodgers with just 4 hits led by the good performance of Mexican starter Javier Assad.

The man who won the Cy Young trophy two years in a row with Detroit, pitched 6 innings with 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 6 strikeouts and 2 walks. It was a good performance by Skubal after being acquired over the weekend in exchange for three prospects, but the Dodgers couldn't get out of the slump even with their new ace on the mound.

The Dodgers, in their worst form of the year, were trying to reach 70 wins for the season just an hour after Milwaukee became the first Major League team to reach that number.

Skubal's debut with the Dodgers

Skubal, 29, began his time as a Dodgers pitcher with a strikeout to star Pete Crow-Armstrong, who stared at the third strike confused by the left-hander's repertoire, especially the changeup, on his way to an in-order first inning.

After Kyle Tucker blew the left-center field wall to open the scoring in the second inning against Javier Assad, a Cubs pitcher born in Tijuana, Skubal retired again in 1, 2 and 3, culminating with a strikeout of Tyrone Taylor. The new Los Angeles ace savored looking around Wrigley Field in a 360-degree turn.

But Skubal was punished on his first pitch of the third inning when Dansby Swanson hit a high fastball into the left-center field stands, tying the game at 1-1. It was his 17th home run.

The left-hander recovered from the shock with a fast fourth inning in which he only needed six pitches. And in the fifth, he got even with Swanson, who had homered off him, with a curve inside to strike him out. Skubal showed his personality as a pitcher in that at-bat by starting with a high fastball, the same shot that the Cubs shortstop had hit him a while before, but this time he did it with better placement.

With his 65th pitch, Skubal completed 5 innings in his first start as a Dodger in a baseball cathedral and against a strong National League team.

Chicago takes the lead in the sixth

However, Los Angeles' hitting was off and eventually the Cubs regained the lead.

It was in the sixth inning when the ball hit by Nico Hoerner with two outs hit home plate and rose high. Second baseman Tommy Edman, who had previously made an out on a throw to the plate, did not have time to avoid the infield hit and Alex Bregman, who had reached base on a double, scored from third to make it 2-1.

The Cubs broke away with two runs in the seventh against the Dodgers bullpen, which is also not going through a good moment. RBI singles by Crow-Armstrong against Alex Vesia and by Seiya Suzuki against Evan Phillips made the score 4-1. And the clincher was Hoerner's solo home run against Edwin Díaz in the eighth.

The Mexican Assad had no decision (5.2 innings, 4 hits, 1 run), but he pitched very well. The win went to Ryan Rolison, first of four Chicago relievers.

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