Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES – Baseball is a funny game. A week after totally dominating the Giants and pitching one of the best games of his career, Julio Urias looked like he was throwing those same Giants hitters batting practice on Saturday night. To be honest, the Dodgers were lucky that the Giants didn’t put up even more on them in this game, because it could have been a whole lot worse than the 11-6 defeat that will go into the scorebook.
Urias gets rocked early
To say the Giants were timing up the pitches from the lefty Urias would be to put it waaay too mildly. He had some wildness early, so when he did go back into the zone, the pitches were a bit too meaty and the Giants’ hitters. And, since Urias’s reputation is of somebody who spends a lot of time in the strike zone, the Giants were jumping on a lot of early offerings at putting wood on the ball. The Giants got five hits in their first time through the lineup. None of them smashed, but they all found the outfield grass. The big blow early was a two-run single from Mauricio Dubon with the bases loaded in the top of the second. Urias didn’t help himself that much in that inning by walking home a run, and the Dodgers found themselves in a 3-1 hole after an inning and a half.
Dodgers try to keep it close
For a short while the Dodgers stayed close. In fact, they had the lead for about ten seconds when Justin Turner raked a double to center to score Gavin Lux in the bottom of the first. And, after the Giants’ big second inning, they took advantage of a couple of infield errors and a Julio Urias sacrifice bunt to cut the Giants’ advantage to 3-2.
Middle Innings the difference
However that was as close as this game would get. In the very next inning, Donavan Solano, who had made both of the errors in the previous frame, decided to erase his mistakes all by himself. He homered to center with a man aboard to put the Giants up 5-2 and they never looked back.
Urias lasted only one more inning before his day was over. His final line for the game was definitely not one he would be putting in his scrapbook: 5.0 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 5 K. “They came out super aggressive and I didn’t do a good job of throwing first-pitch strikes,” Urias said in Spanish. “I don’t think I was very efficient tonight. But I just have to work on it during the week and hope it’s better for the next start.”
Homers for Max and Albert
The Dodgers did have a few good moments at the plate before it was all over. Max Muncy hit another home run (because of course he did), Albert Pujols went 2-for-4 with a home run and drove in three, and Will Smith had a pair of hits as well. But when you let your opponent score 11, somehow a six-run game doesn’t seem so impressive. For about a half a second it looked like the Dodgers might make a game of it when they cut the lead to 7-4 and had two on with only one out in the bottom of the sixth. But two successive strikeouts ended the threat, and it was never really close after that.
Mitch White and Alex Vesia both gave up more Giant runs in the seventh and eighth innings, and when Albert Pujols hit his 669th career home run in the bottom of the eighth it was more of a footnote than anything else. Still, with nice double to left to go along with his homer, Pujols seems to be continuing to contribute to this Dodger offense. With his home run, Pujols is now tied with Babe Ruth in fourth place all time in extra base hits with 1,356 (although I imagine neither hit a whole lot of triples).
Belli, Zach back on the roster
Much bigger contributions will be expected from the two welcome returns to the Dodger lineup: Cody Bellinger and Zach McKinstry. They had both been living the sweet life of Zach and Cody on rehab starts in Oklahoma City these past two weeks, but both were activated and starting in the outfield on Saturday. It didn’t go that great at the plate–neither got a hit–but McKinstry reached on an error, and Bellinger walked and scored a run, so at least they got back on the basepaths. Hopefully, the pair will be able to work their way back to playing form in short order. “It just makes our group better,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of his returning players. “The energy in the clubhouse is really lively right now. Cody certainly brings that, while Zach is more, you know, mild-mannered, but there’s an intensity there. It’s just additive all around.”
Kershaw looks to secure series split
In the end, the Dodgers got too far behind too quickly to mount much of a comeback. After that fantastic run, the Dodgers have now lost three of the last four, and are now in third place in the NL West. They try to pull even with the Giants once again Sunday afternoon in the final game of this series. It should be a great pitching matchup: Clayton Kershaw vs. Kevin Gausman. 1:10 pm first pitch. Then, the Redbirds come in for three-gamer starting on Memorial Day evening.
