Steve Webb
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Well, now. That was a ballgame, now, wasn’t it? If you like offense, there was plenty on display at Tropicana Field on Sunday morning. Fully 21 runs were scored. The Dodgers alone hit five home runs. However, if you like good pitching of any kind, there was not so much on display. And while the Dodgers bashed the entire game, a little infield grounder proved to be the deciding factor in their 11-10 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
First, the positives. Trayce Thompson finally broke out of his 0-for-a-month slump and got not just one hit, but three, including a home run. Chris Taylor hit two dingers of his own. J.D. Martinez continues to rake; his two hits and one homer now puts his season OPS at north of .900.
In addition, the Dodgers showed a lot of resilience in this game. Going down 7-3 early on a getaway day game could have been reason to roll up the tent and concede defeat. But the Dodgers kept fighting throughout the entire game, clawing their way to a tie in the 3rd inning and then again in the 6th. A lot of fight in these 2023 Dodgers.
But in the end, there is only so much bad pitching you can overcome. And there was A LOT of bad pitching on display in Sunday’s game. Most notably from rookie Gavin Stone, who was completely overmatched by the powerful Rays’ lineup. He gave up one run in the first, no biggie, but then in the bottom of the 2nd, it was a massacre. The Rays sent ten men to the plate and scored six times. It was not pretty.
“My thought is he’s going to be better for it,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of Stone’s outing. “I do think that looking back, this was good for him. We wouldn’t do this to a player we didn’t feel could handle it emotionally. Right now I know he’s down in the dumps, but he’ll be all right.”
Stone lasted just two innings on Sunday, continuing a string of short starts from Dodger pitchers. Though there was plenty of offense in this road trip, quality starts were definitely a rarity. Over the last seven games, the team ERA is 6.27, which ranks 27th in MLB. Only the A’s, Rockies, and surprisingly, the first place Rays have had a rougher go of it in the last week.
“It’s not ideal,” Roberts said. “Our hope every time a guy takes the mound is for a guy to get deep into a game, but we have to weigh that versus potentially putting a guy in harm’s way moving forward. It’s baseball, and a lot of teams go through it.”
Still, with all that happened in the game, the Dodgers were tied with the Rays at 10-10 going into the late innings. However, that’s when the scoring spigot shut down. In the end, it was a one-out bouncing ball that Wander Franco hit high off the turf that brought home the winning run in the bottom of the 7th. The Dodgers just couldn’t get anything going late in the game, and went relatively quietly to their defeat.
Home sweet home starting on Monday. First the surprisingly not horrible Nationals, and then the mighty Yankees. It’ll be Miller, Gonsolin, and Syndergaard in the Washington series. Monday night’s Memorial Day game gets underway at 6:10 pm. Then, it’s a usual 7:10 start on Tuesday, followed up by a day game on Wednesday.
This road trip was tough in a lot of ways, but after the Dodgers got out of St. Louis, they played a lot better baseball. Let’s hope they can take some of their frustrations out on the Nats these next three games, and get the positivity coming back into the clubhouse.
