Dodgers 2, Giants 1: Ohtani, Sheehan, Vesia, and Scott combined to snap 7-game losing streak … exhale a bit

Losing streak at seven? No problem.

Shohei Ohtani looked dominant as his rehab continued, which continues to go swimmingly. Emmet Sheehan followed up with some dominance of his own, and the pen bailed him out of trouble late, as the bats of the Dodgers scratched across just enough in a 2-1 victory over the Giants.

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Let’s start with Shohei Ohtani, who started the game and continued to look better than ever on the mound.

All he did in the 1st is strikeout the side, here’s two of those:

Ohtani retired the game’s first five batters, but lost his release point at the end of the 2nd with a four-pitch walk before getting out of the frame. He battled through that and adjusted, resulting in a final scoreless inning in the 3rd, which had just a two-out single.

Dominant and efficient, can’t ask for more yet: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 36 Pitches.

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On the other side, the offense continued to struggle, but they scraped and clawed their way to some run support.

Things started with a half-chance in the 1st on a two-out double that led to nothing, but in the 2nd, Michael Conforto started a rally with an infield single that a diving stop prevented from being a double. Andy Pages then followed with an infield single of his own that a diving stop also knocked down, but a toss to second was errant and Conforto took an extra bag. That later proved important as the only way they were able to get a run across was on a Tommy Edman groundout to make it 1-0.

After going down in order in the 3rd, they got a pair of singles started the 4th that were promptly stranded without moving. The 5th was clean, and the 6th looked to be headed that way after a pair of outs to start, but Conforto singled, Pages walked, and Hyeseong Kim dumped a single to plate another run before getting thrown out trying to stretch it into two.

Nevertheless, 2-0.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers didn’t even manage to get a runner in scoring position the rest of the game.

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Relieving Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan took over and it was clear he didn’t have his best command, but he still managed to get outs. In the 4th, he walked a pair to start but managed to pitch around the traffic, and he rebounded with a dominant 5th. Sheehan then got the order in the 6th and 7th.

After getting the first out of the 8th, he actually had retired 12 in a row, but things unraveled quickly. A single, walk, and a single loaded the bases in quick succession, and that was the end of Sheehan’s outing: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 55 Pitches.

Alex Vesia relieved him with the game on the line, and that one run charged to Sheehan was important, as it was all the Giants got after a sac fly and a groundout ended their threat.

That set things up once again for Tanner Scott in the 9th, who got a dominant frame to close the game.

Between Dalton Rushing and Dave Roberts, it was a surprisingly funny end.

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NL WestRecordGB
Dodgers57-39
Padres51-43*5.0
Giants52-445.0

The series concludes with a rubber match at the same time of 10:05 AM HT/1:05 PM PT/4:05 PM ET on … uh, Roku? Anyway, it’ll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto looking to rebound after arguably the worst start of his career against Robbie Ray.

About Chad Moriyama

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"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times