Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Well, they didn’t get no-hit at least? Happy Mother’s Day!
Yu Darvish dominated the Dodgers over seven shutout frames and the Padres got to Walker Buehler early in a 4-0 loss to drop the second series of the season to them.
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While Buehler’s final line in his season debut wasn’t impressive, the most important thing about that outing was that his stuff looked mostly back. The velocity and all that continued to hold up, but Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth went back-to-back off him in the 1st to make it 2-0 Padres.
After having to escape with RISP in the 2nd and 3rd, he exited in the 4th with one out and the bases loaded. Ryan Yarbrough entered and allowed a run to score on a double-play attempt before getting out of the jam for him, and it was 3-0 Padres.
Last time Buehler’s line was better than it looked, today, it was worse: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 77 Pitches.
Velo was what I was worried most about, but he's been effective before around this range, so it's kinda just waiting for feel to return. https://t.co/rTMw1MxD8S
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 12, 2024
Gus Varland relieved him in the 5th and surrendered a solo homer to Xander Bogaerts to make it 4-0 Padres.
Alex Vesia and Nabil Crismatt followed out of the pen with scoreless frames, Vesia accounting for the 6th and Crismatt getting both the 7th and 8th.
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It didn’t matter much, as Darvish was dominant. He looked a bit like his age might be catching up to him in 2023, but he has pushed those thoughts to the side with a strong start to 2024, and that continued today.
Darvish was perfect through four, which was broken up with two outs in the 5th after a walk, and the no-hitter was gone on the next batter with a single. However, there was no damage in that inning, and he stranded a one-out double in the 6th as well before getting a clean frame in the 7th to end his outing.
Yu Darvish is FIRED UP ? pic.twitter.com/f18hRSwoBq
— MLB (@MLB) May 12, 2024
Against the pen, the Dodgers got a pair of baserunners in the 8th with two down but that amounted to nothing, and the 9th came and went quietly.
Welp.
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Max Muncy continues to play well defensively at least.
Air Muncy pic.twitter.com/a5mT5HyCYC
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 12, 2024
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27-15, eh.
The Dodgers will now travel north to San Francisco for a three-game series against the rival Giants. Things will kick-off with Yoshinobu Yamamoto looking to continue his great run while up against Jordan Hicks, who has made a clean transition to starter.
