Dodgers 4, White Sox 0: Gavin Stone’s first career shutout caps sweep in Chicago

Cody Bashore 06/26/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Not to be outdone by Shohei Ohtani‘s record-breaking home run in the first inning, Gavin Stone did exactly what the Dodgers (51-31) needed as they looked to finish off a sweep of the White Sox (21-61) on Wednesday night. Shutting out Chicago in his first career complete game, Stone needed 103 pitches in the victory as the Dodgers head back to California for a three-game series against the Giants.

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As mentioned above, it didn’t take long for Ohtani to make history on Wednesday night.

Just 6 pitches into the game, Ohtani connected on his 5th home run in the past 6 games (and 8th home run in the past 10 games) as he sent Erick Fedde‘s cutter 437 feet to right-center field. As the broadcast mentioned, the 113.9 mph off the bat is the hardest hit ball at Guaranteed Rate Field this season while only being tied for Shohei’s 12th-hardest hit ball in 2024.

For anyone keeping track as we enter the second half of the season:

With Stone given a 1-0 lead before his night began, he struck out Andrew Benintendi with a change and Luis Robert Jr. on a sinker as part of a 1-2-3 1st inning that needed only 12 pitches. One of the two other Gavins playing in the game, Gavin Sheets, doubled to center on the 6th pitch of his at-bat to open the 2nd, but the White Sox needed just 4 more pitches to waste the double end the inning.

Unsurprisingly, the White Sox immediately regretted the failure to cash in Sheets as the Dodgers added on 3 more runs in the 3rd. Singles by Enrique Hernandez and Austin Barnes out of the 8th and 9th spots in the order brought Ohtani back up. Four pitches later, the Dodgers had the bases loaded for Teoscar Hernandez, who sent a cutter to right for a sacrifice fly. Connecting on the 3rd hit of the inning that was at least 100 mph off the bat, Freddie Freeman doubled in 2 more runs to take a 4-0 lead.

As the White Sox tweeted out a few hours before tonight’s first pitch, Fedde had allowed just 4 earned runs in 38 innings at home this season before the Dodgers put up 4 runs through 12 batters.

After Stone needed just 8 more pitches to get through a 1-2-3 3rd, Miguel Rojas clinched a Dodgers’ victory in the 4th as he doubled to right field. This time around, the bottom of the order came up empty and stranded Rojas at third, but Stone continued to roll through the worst offense in baseball. Despite falling behind 2-0 to Benintendi to open the 4th, Stone battled back for another strikeout with his change-up and then took care of Robert Jr. and Sheets for a 13-pitch inning.

With Fedde settling down a bit, the top of the Dodgers’ order went down 1-2-3 on 12 pitches in the 5th despite a 9-pitch at-bat from Teoscar. However, Stone continued his own efficiency with a 13-pitch 5th of his own that included strikeouts of Andrew Vaughn and Nicky Lopez. Another 1-2-3 inning for Fedde in the 6th preceded another scoreless inning for Stone as well, with a leadoff hit for the White Sox amounting to nothing due to Tommy Pham flying out and Benintendi adding to a rough day at the plate by grounding into a double play.

Chicago elected to end Fedde’s day after 6 innings and 88 pitches with 5 hits, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts around the 4 runs allowed. Only Fedde’s start on May 20 against the Blue Jays included a lower pitch count (84) this season. Against the White Sox pen, Rojas further assured a win for Los Angeles with his second hit of the game coming on a bunt to greet Michael Soroka, but the Dodgers once again failed to score with both Hernandezes and Austin Barnes striking out while Ohtani added another walk.

At this point, I could have just fast-forwarded to the next time someone scored again in this game (which, of course, never actually happened), but Stone’s outing was impressive enough to note the result of each inning. Another 13-pitch inning in the 7th included another pair of strikeouts as both Robert Jr. and Vaughn went down swinging again, this time on sliders.

Sent back to the mound for the 8th after throwing 84 pitches through 7 innings, Stone needed just 9 more pitches in the 8th for the longest start of his brief major league career. Given the recent workload of the bullpen, Stone’s pitch count and … well, the White Sox lack of much offense prowess, the Dodgers sent the 25-year-old out for the 9th.

And as had been the case throughout the game, Stone needed just 10 more pitches to close it out: 9 IP, 7 Ks, 4 H, 0 BB, 103 pitches.

Finishing with a 26% CSW against the White Sox, Stone finished with 10 total Whiffs as he leaned on the sinker (31%) and slider (28%). That brought Stone’s ERA down to 2.73 this season, surpassing Tyler Glasnow for the best mark on the team and just outside the Top 10 for all of baseball.

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Also, not for nothing, Ohtani was saved by a bat boy.

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers51-31
Padres44-41 (8.5 GB)

After a day off Thursday to travel to San Francisco, the Dodgers will face the Giants at 7:15 p.m. on Friday night. Landon Knack is scheduled to open the series, followed by Glasnow on Saturday and James Paxton on Sunday.

About Cody Bashore

Cody Bashore is a lifelong Dodger fan originally from Carpinteria, California (about 80 miles north of Dodger Stadium along the coast). He left California to attend Northern Arizona University in 2011, and has lived in Arizona full-time since he graduated in 2014 with a journalism degree.
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