Buehler pitches gem in Dodgers’ mini-sweep of Giants

LOS ANGELES — In a battle of two pitchers that had only one loss between them, Walker Buehler outdueled Kevin Gausman at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night. He pitched six shut-out innings, and the Dodgers rode some early scoring to a 3-1 victory over the Giants.

Starters keep it close

Even though Walker Buehler has been brilliant this year, it was Gausman who entered the game with better numbers. Gausman’s pregame ERA was a paltry 1.49, and he had a gaudy 8-1 record over 14 starts. It was a daunting task for Dodgers hitters, who had just gotten no-hit by the Cubs last Thursday.

First inning clutch from CT3

If there was one chink in the Gausman armor, it was his performance in the first inning. With his mix of splitters, change-ups, and fastballs, Gausman has sometimes needed time to get the feel of his pitchers. His ERA in his first inning of work this season is well over 3.00. Tuesday night was no exception. After striking out Mookie Betts to lead off the game, Gausman seemed to lose track of the plate. He walked Max Muncy, grazed Justin Turner‘s elbow pad for a HBP, and walked Cody Bellinger. Suddenly the bases were loaded with just one out.

After a Will Smith strikeout, All-Star candidate Chris Taylor came to the plate ready for battle. He fouled off a couple of Gausman pitches, and found himself quickly in a 1-2 hole. But, on the next pitch was fought off an inside fastball and punched it into right field. The opposite field hit was not mashed that hard, but Taylor managed to get it between first baseman Lamonte Wade Jr. and the bag. It knocked off the wall padding in foul territory, and by the time right fielder Mike Tauchman had tracked it down, two Dodgers had scampered across the plate.

The funky Muncy goes deep

Tuesday was a Max Muncy bobblehead promotion, commemorating the awesome “Go get it out of the ocean” dust-up with Madison Bumgarner a couple years back. So, it was only right and proper that Muncy should hit a home run to make the evening complete. In the bottom of the third, Mad Max did just that. He took a 3-1 four-seamer and buried it over the centerfield fence. It wasn’t exactly McCovey Cove, but it was awesome just the same. It was Muncy’s seventh home run in nine games against the Giants, which works out to a dinger every four at bats. Not too shabby. And, to make sure that the fans got the total Max Muncy experience, he walked a couple of times to further pad that high-flying OBP.

Buehler lights out much of the night

Pitching with an early lead, Buehler was a little wild early, and not as efficient as he would have liked in the early going, but he managed to hold the Giants when they had runners on base. The biggest threat that los Gigantes had against Buehler in the first six innings was when Buster Posey hit a one-out double in the fourth. But, Buehler came back to retire both Brandon Crawford and Wilmer Flores on harmless infield pop-ups to end the inning.

Bad D costs the Dodgers a run in the seventh

However, Buetane was undone by some shoddy defense in the top of the seventh. After getting two quick outs, he induced Wilmer Flores to hit a slow ground ball to the hole on the left side of the infield. Shortstop Gavin Lux seemed to have a beat on it but it clanked off his glove for an error. With a runner now on first, Buehler was touched up for an unearned run when Steven Duggar came through with a two-out double to chase the Dodgers’ starter from the game. Joe Kelly came in to clean up the mess, and got a quick out when Donovan Solano grounded into an 5-3 out to Justin Turner. The final line for Buehler on the night, which clocked in at a career-high 113 pitches: 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7 K.

Kelly great. Kenley was an adventure

Kelly hung around to pitch a solid eighth inning and then gave way to Kenley Jansen in the top of the ninth. And of course, this being a Dodgers/Giants game, nothing comes too easy. Jansen started off the inning in about the worst way possible, plunking Alex Dickerson on the first pitch of the inning. Then, to make matters worse, he walked Buster Posey on some pitches that weren’t even very close.

So with two on and no out, Jansen found himself in a real pickle. But, 2021 Kenley has been very good at getting out of messes that he’s made himself. This time, he got slugger Brandon Crawford to watch strike three cut the plate in half for the first out. Then, a weak pop-up from Wilmer Flores, and Steven Duggar came to the plate with the Giants’ last hope. Using his slider for the last pitch of the night, Jansen got Duggar to whiff on a perfectly placed dart on the inside corner. Game over. 3-1 Dodger win. Break out the very small sized brooms.

Dodgers head to the East Coast for seven

The Dodgers are now just 1.5 games out of first place, which seemed almost unthinkable after the way last week began. They get a day off for travel tomorrow and then open up a series in Washington, DC against the Nationals on Thursday night. Pitching the first game against the Nats will be Tony Gonsolin, trying to build on a solid start last Friday against the Cubs. Game time, 4:05 PDT. The Dodgers also better pack their good suits for the trip because they are looking at a possible visit to the White House on this trip to our nation’s capital. Hopefully, they can figure out a visit that won’t interfere with Joe Biden’s nap time. In the meantime, enjoy the day off, gents. You’ve earned it!