Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers started a short six-game road trip by continuing to look dead in a 4-0 shutout loss to the White Sox.
Yikes.
That’s three in a row.
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The Michael Kopech and Mitch White matchup resulted in a short pitchers’ duel, just like everybody surely expected.
Kopech was basically as dominant as expected, giving up just a single and a walk in six shutout innings. Surprisingly, the Dodgers did get two two-out scoring chances with that thanks to a stolen base and a balk, but two foul outs made those half-chances go away. The only saving grace is that he was at 98 pitches and had to be removed.
Amusingly, for a while it was actually White who was better, starting with four perfect innings. However, he ran into major trouble in the 5th after a single, hit by pitch, and single loaded the bases with one out, but he buckled in and got back-to-back strikeouts to keep things scoreless.
An extremely impressive outing in what might be his last start for (hopefully) a while with Clayton Kershaw and Andrew Heaney returning soon: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 69 Pitches.
Unfortunately, the 6th then happened for the Dodgers. Phil Bickford started the inning relatively well, allowing an infield single but getting two outs. The mess started with a dribbler through the right-side against the shift for a single to corner the runners and was really exacerbated by going matchup and taking out Bickford for David Price.
The White Sox immediately countered this with old friend AJ Pollock, who prompted hit the first pitch for a double for two runs. Jake Burger then also hit the first pitch for a double to score a run, then Yoan Moncada was intentionally walked (despite him being terrible this year) for another matchup, and Price gave up a second-pitch hit this time, a single to make it 4-0 before he finally got an out to mercifully end the 6th.
Dunno what to say. Price is just not good and really hasn’t been for years, which is why they don’t take him on the playoff roster or use him in leverage. The roster spot would be better off going to somebody else, but money and all that, I guess.
Yency Almonte got the 7th for the Dodgers, issuing a walk but nothing else. Justin Bruihl was given the 8th, which he dealt with in order.
The White Sox pen started in the 7th and the Dodgers had something going with two hits and a walk, but a double play helped them avoid a real threat in the end. They had two more singles in the 8th but another double play made sure there was no real issue for the White Sox. The Dodgers then got another single in the 9th but that also amounted to nothing.
Wheee.
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Whether intentional or not, Eric Karros says some funny shit, like this quip about Reese McGuire.
Justin Turner lined a single off the pitcher’s glove for his 1000th.
Mookie Betts made a nice play at least.
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The Dodgers fall to 35-20 and temporarily are 2 games up on the Padres in the NL West.
Series continues tomorrow at 2:10 PM HT/5:10 PM PT/8:10 PM ET with Tony Gonsolin facing Johnny Cueto, which should favor the Dodgers on paper, but baseball.
