Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers kicked off their six-game East Coast road trip in Pittsburgh with a 1-0 loss against the Pirates. Perhaps as expected, it was a pitchers’ duel early, but it was the Pirates who broke through first with a homer in a tight affair for the most part.
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On the mound for the Dodgers was Tyler Glasnow, who mostly continued his great year for the Dodgers. He did, however, surrender a solo homer to Jack Suwinski in the 3rd to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. The #9 hitter of all people.
Jack is back. pic.twitter.com/HKlAM0QaJC
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) June 4, 2024
Meanwhile, he was doing stuff like this to Oneil Cruz.
Tyler Glasnow with three straight curves to get Oneil Cruz. pic.twitter.com/YrVYpGtM8y
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 4, 2024
Granted, Miguel Rojas did give him some help as well.
Miguel Rojas barehands a roller to third. What a play. pic.twitter.com/QuavlXdveg
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 4, 2024
Either way, he continued on and didn’t run into trouble again until the 6th, when an infield single, a walk, two steals, and a wild pitch resulted in runners at second and third with two outs. However, Glasnow got his third strikeout of the inning to secure the scoreless frame.
Glasnow looked good: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 97 Pitches.
On the other end, dynamic Pirates rookie Jared Jones was on the mound in the midst of what seems like a breakout year, though he wasn’t sharp early against the Dodgers. Still, it was enough to not allow runs.
He pitched around a two-out single and double in the 1st, a lead-off walk and immediate steal in the 2nd, and a two-out double and hit-by-pitch in the 3rd (he also issued a walk that was erased by a double play). Regardless, no damage. In the 4th, a lead-of walk was advanced a base each on a pair of groundouts, but again the Dodgers couldn’t come up with the big hit. 0-for-7 with RISP to that point.
No matter, that was the last chance the Dodgers got against him, as he got the next six batters in order to get through six shutout.
Don't even know whether it's good or bad that you can't even say Jared Jones was much better against them than Dakota Hudson.
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 5, 2024
That brought in the Pirates pen, which started with a Gavin Lux double to start the 7th. Of course, all that really did is lead to three chance to strand him there, which they did. 0-for-10.
Shohei Ohtani led off the eighth with a hit off Aroldis Chapman. After a Freddie Freeman strikeout, Will Smith walked to move Ohtani into scoring position. Naturally, that meant a flyout and a strikeout ended the inning and gave the Dodgers an 0-for-12 with RISP. At least the flyout was dramatic?
For the Dodger pen, it was a strong night. Alex Vesia allowed a double but struck out the side in the seventh and Yohan Ramirez threw a perfect eighth.
The pitching effort would go to waste, though, as David Bednar set the Dodgers down in order to secure the 1-0 Pirate win.
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| NL WEST | RECORD |
|---|---|
| Dodgers | 38-24 |
| Padres | 32-31 (7 GB)* |
| Giants | 29-32 (9 GB)* |
*Either still playing or will play later.
Things certainly don’t get any easier tomorrow as it’ll be James Paxton — who is on a hot streak, to be fair — against another rookie phenom in Paul Skenes at 12:40 PM HT/3:40 PM PT/6:40 PM ET.
