Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After a painful one-run loss to start the important series against the Giants, the up and down Dodgers were up again in a 8-0 victory that got them back to square one in the division from before the series started.
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Giants starter Anthony DeSclafani is a Cy Young Award contender against every team in baseball except one, and thankfully that team is the Dodgers. They knocked him around and out early again tonight.
After a perfect 1st and working around two singles in the 2nd, things imploded in the 3rd. With one out, Chris Taylor walked, Max Muncy singled, and Justin Turner singled to score CT3 for the game’s first run. Then Will Smith stepped up and drilled a ball into death valley in right center, plating two more with a triple. With two down, AJ Pollock then singled to plate one more and make it 4-0. After a walk, DeScalafani was removed from the game.
Jose Alvarez worked out of the 3rd and faced minor danger in the 4th. Sammy Long started in the 5th, escaping two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out with a strikeout and a lineout, also getting the 6th in much less dramatic fashion.
John Brebbia took over in the 7th, hitting Pollock, giving up a one-out single to Zach McKinstry to corner the runners, and then Buehler himself drove in a run with a grounder. With two down, Muncy doubled to deep center to extend the lead to 7-0.
Things didn’t get any better for Brebbia in the 8th, as Cody Bellinger found the stands in deep right to extend the lead to 8-0. Dominic Leone then closed the book on the Dodgers with a scoreless 9th.
The story of the game, of course, was Walker Buehler, who continues to step up when the Dodgers need him most. Over seven shutout innings, he faced just four batters over the minimum thanks to inducing two double plays. He also missed a lot of bats, and in fact the only batter he faced with a RISP came in the 6th after a wild pitch on a strikeout.
He was dominant in a game that the team needed to have, lowering his ERA to 2.19: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, 98 Pitches.
Mitch White closed the Giants out, surrendering two singles but not much else in two shutout innings.
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62-41 on the season now and just 2 games back of the Giants in the NL West.
The Dodgers will look to win the series tomorrow afternoon at 9:45 AM HT/12:45 PM PT/3:45 PM ET with David Price facing Johnny Cueto.
