Cody Snavely
Pittsburgh, PA — The Dodgers look to take their momentum from Chicago into Pittsburgh, where they will take on the early season surprise in the Pirates. Pittsburgh has made headlines over the past few weeks by having the best record in the NL coming into today’s game, and also, news broke of the Pirates extending star outfielder Bryan Reynolds to a multi-year contract. The Pirates have not made the Postseason since 2015 and are still in the middle of a rebuild will get their first test this season as they host the Dodgers at home.
Things got off to an excellent start for LA as Miguel Vargas drove in two with an RBI double off of Pirates starter Johan Oviedo. However, that lead would be short-lived as Noah Syndergaard did not have it tonight. In what has been a theme for the mighty Thor is his home/road splits, as Syndergaard seems to prefer Dodgers Stadium compared to road ballparks, where he has been hit quite hard at Arizona and now Pittsburgh. After allowing three runs in the first two innings, Syndergaard would be again hammered for four runs in the bottom of the 4th inning as Pittsburgh would jump out to a 7-2 lead.
With how the Dodgers have been playing as of late, it would’ve been easy to dismiss any sort of comeback tonight, but that’s where we fans would be wrong as the Dodgers pulled off their biggest comeback win of the season tonight. It all started with Freddie Freeman and the newly promoted prospect Michael Busch as they would cut the deficit to just three. However, perhaps the biggest highlight play of the day came with Mookie Betts at the plate with runners on first and second and a full count. Betts missed a lead-changing home run as he was robbed at the wall by Pirates outfielder Jack Suwinski. At the time, it was a massive blow for the comeback effort until Chris Taylor (who went 3/4 today) hit a three-run home run in the eighth to put the Dodgers in front.
The Pitching minus Syndergaard was extremely efficient today, with Victor González, Evan Phillips, Yency Almonte, and Caleb Ferguson all going scoreless today. Shelby Miller, who has been a huge bright spot for the Dodgers this season, closed the door on the Pirates as he got his first Magor League save.
The Dodgers continue the series tomorrow, with Tony Gonsolin expected to be activated and make his 2023 debut. Be sure to follow us here at DodgersBeat for the latest news, coverage, and opinions on your Los Angeles Dodgers.
