Pirates 6, Dodgers 1: An Overall Team Loss

The Dodgers fell 6-1 to the Pirates, putting that winning streak in the rear view by immediately laying two eggs on the road. Well, at least this one was a total team effort!

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Kenta Maeda was victimized twice by Andrew McCutchen homers, who of course has seemed to pick this series to finally get his season untracked. Maeda ended up throwing 92 pitches and lasting just five innings. He struck out four and gave up just four hits and two walks, but those two homers by McCutchen accounted for all four runs charged against him.

Joe Blanton then came on in relief of him and also got victimized with a homer, allowing a two-run shot, and if the game wasn’t out of hand when he entered then it certainly was after. Pedro Baez and J.P. Howell followed with a scoreless innings, which were meaningless, but those are the types of low leverage type of appearances they ideally will be making.

It didn’t matter a whole lot though, because today’s loss was just an overall team effort.

Jeff Locke entered today’s game with a 5.44 ERA, which is terrible, and yet the Dodgers offense had a perfect game thrown against them through five innings. The Dodgers then threatened in the following three innings, but could only barely cash in.

In the sixth, the Dodgers got on the board with behind back-to-back doubles by Scott Van Slyke and A.J. Ellis. However, as Maeda tried to bunt Ellis over to third, he was backpicked for an out, which basically killed the threat. In the seventh, they got a lead-off double from Corey Seager before making two outs, and then Yasiel Puig singled and advanced to second to put runners on second and third, but they couldn’t cash in. In the eighth, a single from Ellis and a double from Howie Kendrick puts runners on second and third with nobody out, but the Dodgers struck out in three consecutive at-bats. Hell, even in the ninth, the game ended with Puig stranded at second.

The Dodgers didn’t get a baserunner through five innings and still managed to strand six … impressive!

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The Dodgers are now 41-35 on the year, with a struggling 18-20 record away from home.

Fortunately, the Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw going tomorrow on ESPN at 2:00 HST/5:00 PST/8:00 EST. Unfortunately, they’re facing Chad Kuhl, who is making his MLB debut and thus probably throws a shutout.