Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Pirates completed a sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles with a 8-4 victory, and the Dodgers are now 1-5 against the Pirates this year.
Literally the only good thing I can say about this is the Dodgers don’t have to play them again this year in the regular season and won’t be seeing them in the playoffs either.
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Mitch White turned in his best outing of the season last time out, but against the vaunted Pirates there were early struggles. A single and a walk started the game in the 1st, and then a Josh VanMeter single drove in a run to put the Dodgers behind early. However, he managed to minimize the damage by escaping the jam.
White did bounce back and looked to be putting together a great start by getting 13 of the next 14 batters he faced, giving up just a single in that span. However, with two outs in the 5th, he was allowed to face the Pirates lineup a third time and they immediately capitalized with a walk and then Bryan Reynolds smashed a two-run homer to saddle White with three runs in total.
5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 7 K, 78 Pitches.
Outside of the playoffs, the Dodgers have historically struggled against Jose Quintana for whatever reason, and that trend held early. After a clean start in the 1st, he gave up just a single in the 2nd and a double in the 3rd, but the wheels started to fall off after that.
The bats broke through in the 4th behind a lead-off double for Trea Turner, a bloop oppo single for Justin Turner, and then a Chris Taylor single to drive Trea in and tie things up at 1-1. However, Quintana did slam the door on the rally after that.
The 5th started just as poorly for Quintana, with a Kevin Pillar walk followed by a Gavin Lux double to set the table. Mookie Betts then hit a grounder to third that took a funny bounce and hit off the glove of Ke’Bryan Hayes for an infield single, but Pillar didn’t score and seemed to injure himself with the starting and stopping on the play (he later left the game) and it ended up just loading the bases.
Freddie Freeman followed this by grounding out to first, resulting in a force out at first and then thankfully not a double play at home due to a wild throw, and Pillar scored to cut the deficit to 3-2.
Unfortunately, that’s all they got. The Pirates pen entered at this point, and Trea was then a victim of two horrible strike calls and struck out, then JT popped out to end the threat.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers pen was also in for the 6th in the form of Evan Phillips. Surprisingly, he was allowed to get a couple innings, this even after he struggled a bit in his first frame with a walk and hitting a batter. However, he rebounded in the 7th with a 1-2-3 inning to keep the score intact.
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I’m not quite sure how to describe the Dodgers offense at times this series, but they seem almost pressing and desperate against the Pirates of all teams. Like in the 6th, Taylor drew a lead-off walk and was going with the pitch on a Hanser Alberto grounder. They stayed out of the double play thanks to that and he was in scoring position, but CT3 saw the need to go for third and got thrown out for a double play. A single followed that would’ve scored a run, because of course it did, but instead it led to nothing.
What unfolded in the 7th was just as bad. A Lux walk led things off, then Betts singled and advanced to second on the throw to third as Lux took the extra base. That seemed to prime them for at least a tie, but Freddie grounded into the drawn-in infield and then Trea blooped a shallow fly to center and Reynolds threw Lux out at home for a double play to end it.
It’s pathetic to watch, not just because they aren’t producing, which is something that happens, but they are simply making unforced errors like they’re choking against the FUCKING PIRATES of all teams.
Anyway, Alex Vesia got the 8th and he looked rough out there, giving up a double and then a moonshot of a homer to Rodolfo Castro to push the Pirates lead to 5-2. Of course. Well, whatever, not like they were scoring enough anyway.
The other half of the 8th … well, this is about how it went.
The 9th was given to Michael Grove, who gave up a bunt single, a steal, an intentional walk, and then a Michael Chavis rolling single that deflected off Edwin Rios‘ glove to plate a run. Castro then immediately followed up by ripping a single to plate two more and make it 8-2.
To make things almost worst in terms of missed chances, Lux singled in their half of the 9th and Mookie then hit his 16th homer to cut the deficit to 8-4. That’s where things ended.
Time to wake the fuck up.
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Well, good for him or whatever.
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The Dodgers fall to 33-16 on the year and still hold a 3-game lead over the Padres in the NL West. A miracle, but frustrating to not put more room between them in this series.
Oh right, now they’re gonna welcome the Mets in for a four-game set, starting at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. They’ve won six straight and the Dodgers will turn to Tony Gonsolin to stop them with Taijuan Walker on the other end.
