Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
A disastrous sixth inning for David Price and a four-hit day by Kevin Newman pushed the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-3 victory on Sunday.
Taking two out of three in the series from the Los Angeles Dodgers (16-12), the Pirates (13-15) put up all of their runs in the sixth inning off Price.
With Guillermo Heredia and Jarrod Dyson already recording two-out RBI singles in the inning, Newman came away with the biggest hit of the game. Connecting on his first home run of the season, the Pirates shortstop drove in three to break a 2-2 tie.
“We played a good game and came out on top,” said Newman, who meant to say “I rather” than “we” at the start of the quote. Newman finished his 4-for-4 day with a double in addition to the homer, three RBIs and a run scored. Erik Gonzalez finished 3-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored as the two did most of the work against the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
While Price struggled to get Newman and Gonzalez out, all five runs he allowed came with two away in the sixth. Striking out five and walking two, Price finished the day with 11 hits allowed, recording 10 groundouts to just one flyout.
Adam Kolarek entered for the Dodgers after Price gave up the homer, closing out the sixth and returning for a clean seventh inning because the simulation really doesn’t care about his real-life splits. Edubray Ramos worked the eighth allowing one hit.
Despite the bullpen’s best effort to slow down the Pirates’ offense late in the game, the Dodgers struggled to get much going on their end. Scoring just eight runs in the series, Los Angeles opened things Sunday with a two-out RBI double by Chris Taylor to score Joc Pederson in the fourth. Justin Turner added another run in the fifth with a solo homer, his seventh of the simulation, to chase Mitch Keller. Walking four and allowing four hits, Keller struck out seven while allowing just two runs in his 5+ innings.
The Pirates mixed and matched across the game’s final four innings, with six different relievers entering the game. The Dodgers found the most success against Michael Feliz in the eighth. Mookie Botts drove in Turner with two away in the inning, but the Dodgers failed to put anything else on the board as Keone Kela earned the save with a clean ninth.
After taking Monday off, the Dodgers will close out April with a pair of interleague games against the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium.
