Tarik Skubal's Beer-Soaked Interview Steals the Dodgers' NLDS Celebration Without Him Pitching

The Dodgers closed out Atlanta on Wednesday night, and the player who owned the evening never threw a pitch. Tarik Skubal, the ace Los Angeles acquired in August, produced the celebration’s viral moment across two live interviews, the New York Post and For The Win report: a double beer chug in the first, and a second that dissolved into a soaking so complete that roughly 45 seconds passed before the reporter could ask a question.

What happened in the two interviews?

The first was with Dodgers reporter Kirsten Watson. Asked about the celebration to come, Skubal swore happily on live television, then chugged the two beers he was holding at once, most of the beer running down his chest rather than into his mouth, the New York Post reports.

The second, with SportsNet LA’s David Vassegh, was less an interview than a weather event. Skubal announced he had a beer somewhere it should not be, beer was thrown and poured over both men, and the pitcher told the drenched reporter that the game was speeding up on him, the New York Post reports. When another beer went down Skubal’s back he reported, accurately, that what was running down his pants was very cold. Awful Announcing called the segment the new postseason leader for the best clubhouse interview, and pointed out that the two were reminded they were on live television only after several profanities had already made it to air.

Why did a non-pitching performance become the story of the night?

Because celebrations are the one part of a clincher that cannot be stage-managed, and Skubal treated his like a homecoming. This is a pitcher who arrived in a blockbuster August trade from Detroit, a former Cy Young winner joining a team whose October routine is the most practised in the sport, Awful Announcing reports. Detroit has not tasted the Dodgers’ level of success, and a two-month employee was not supposed to be the loudest man in the room.

Instead he was its centre. The same series had already shown the other end of the celebration spectrum in the Atlanta clubhouse, where Tyler Mahle was caught swearing at his own defence after a dropped pop-up gifted the Dodgers a run: one team’s pitcher furious on camera, the other team’s pitcher euphoric on camera, both clips travelling further than any highlight of the baseball itself.

What is the free-agency subtext?

Skubal reaches free agency this winter, and the Dodgers knew that when they gave up top prospects for him in August, Dodgers Nation reports. A rental ace is meant to pitch his team deep into October and then be negotiated with. The celebration footage has been read, including by Dodgers Nation’s coverage, as evidence of something the front office cannot buy in a negotiation: a star who already looks like he belongs.

The one serious answer he gave supports the reading. Asked, between soakings, how much the Dodgers meant to him, Skubal praised the team’s culture, its preparation and its expectation to win, and said he loved being part of it, the New York Post reports. It is a short quote, but it is the only sentence from the night that will be quoted back in November, when his market opens. The chug was for the fans. That sentence was for the record.

How does this fit the Dodgers’ strange week of viral moments?

Los Angeles has spent this series generating stories that have nothing to do with the scoreline. A Dodgers fan refused to give a foul ball to a young Braves fan and went viral in Game 3. The Braves’ season effectively turned on a dropped pop-up and a pitcher’s televised reaction. Milwaukee, the Dodgers’ next opponent, arrived in the NLCS through Jackson Chourio’s final-strike walk-off against Mason Miller, and Ronald Acuna Jr. spent the week denying a podcast insult was aimed at his former manager.

Against that backdrop, Skubal’s soaking is the happiest clip of the round, and the only one with contract implications. October interviews are usually where players say nothing in goggles. Skubal said nothing in goggles too, at much greater volume, and somehow still told everyone the one thing they wanted to know.

What happens next for Skubal?

The NLCS against Milwaukee, a rematch of last year’s series, and the starts that will actually price his winter. However the celebration read, free agency is settled by leverage, years and money, and Skubal’s leverage grows with every dominant October outing he adds before the market opens.

If the Dodgers win the World Series, Wednesday’s clip becomes the trailer for a re-signing announcement. If he leaves, it becomes the strangest farewell video in recent memory: a pitcher who celebrated like a lifer, two months after arriving, on a team he was about to walk away from.