Steve Webb
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Great starting pitching + timely hitting = Dodgers’ W. This time, it was young gun Dustin May who provided the lights-out start, and Corey Seager, Max Muncy, and Zach McKinstry who did most of the work on the offensive side in the Dodgers’ 10-3 victory over the Athletics in Oakland tonight.
In what was arguably the best start of his young career, May brought his A-game to the mound at the newly renamed “RingCentral Coliseum” (yuck). His first inning was a little shaky, as he gave up a lead-off single to Mark Canha and a one-out walk to Matt Olson. However, he was able to work out of it with his first strikeout and a sharp grounder to second baseman Chris Taylor. After wriggling out of that jam, May wouldn’t really be touched for the rest of the evening.
In the visitors’ half of the second, the Dodgers got busy. With one out in the frame, Max Muncy and Chris Taylor both singled, and Edwin Rios walked to load up the bases. Up came Dodgers’ rookie Zach McKinstry, who has looked sharp in his first week with the big club. McKinstry hit a fly ball out to left, scoring Max Muncy for the Dodgers’ first run.
After a Mookie Betts single re-loaded the bases, who should come up but the hottest hitter on the planet right now. Yep, Corey Seager. And as per his modus operandi, he was first pitch swinging, raking a Frankie Montas offering over center fielder Mark Canha’s head. The bases cleared and Corey Seager pocketed a 3-RBI double for his efforts.
It was 4-0 at that point, which was more than enough for Dustin May to work with. May was nothing short of spectacular in his season debut. After the slightly rocky first inning, May was nearly unhittable for the next five innings, pounding the strike zone in the upper 90s. In the end, his line was even better than Julio Urias‘s on Sunday: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 8 K. And all of that on just 85 pitches. So believe it or not, the first time through the Dodgers’ rotation, the worst performance of the bunch was from the guy with three Cy Youngs on his mantle.
Will Smith and Justin Turner added solo home runs to pile on a bit. Zach McKinstry managed an RBI in three different at-bats tonight and continues to impress in the early days of the season. This 33rd-rounder could very well be an actual upgrade from Kike Hernandez.
The lone sour note in an otherwise sweet evening was the pitching performance of David Price, who came on in relief of May. After a scoreless 7th, he struggled in the 8th, and gave up three runs to spoil all the zeroes on the scorecard. Scott Alexander came on to pitch a clean 9th inning to finish the game.
Injury-wise, there were also a couple of causes for concern. Chris Taylor had to be removed from the game after suffering an elbow contusion after a HBP. In addition, Cody Bellinger came up limping after a bang bang play at first in the ninth, Hopefully, a little ice and they’ll both be good to go very soon.
We get our second look at Clayton Kershaw tomorrow and with any luck, he’ll add on to what is now a nifty little four-game winning streak. Game time on Tuesday 6:40 pm.
