Steve Webb
PITTSBURGH, PA — All good things must come to an end. So too the Dodgers’ winning streak. It came crashing to the ground with a resounding thud on Monday night in Pittsburgh. Starter Julio had a decent enough outing, but the Dodgers just couldn’t get anything going offensively in this one, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 5-1.
Dodgers hit the ball hard, but Pirates’ defense is stingy
The Pirates came into this one with not one starter in the rotation getting credited for a win. That changed to night with the well-traveled Jose Quintana. The veteran lefty brought his vintage stuff to the ballpark in this one, pitching six innings of shut-out ball on just two hits.
The Dodgers got in some cuts though. Several times in this one, a Dodger player got good wood on the ball and sent a rocket into the outfield, only to see it end up nestled in the webbing of the glove of some Pirate fielder. It was a frustrating night all the way around. It wasn’t until Edwin Rios went yard in the top of the ninth that the Dodgers got on the board at all.
Urias works around trouble all night
On the other hand, Julio Urias was getting knocked around a bit in this game. It seemed like every inning, the Bucs had runners on, usually in scoring position. But Urias made the pitches when he needed to most of the night. He gave up one run in the bottom of the fourth when Michael Chavis led off with a triple and scored on a sac fly to right. The play at the plate on that one was much closer than it needed to be, but Mookie Betts, who already had an outfield assist in the game, made a strong throw to the plate.
Then, in the sixth, still down only one run, Urias had his best sequence of the night. Former Dodger Yoshi Tsutsugo doinked a single into center to lead off the inning and moved to third on Diego Castillo‘s double. With runners on second and third with nobody out, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion that the Pirates were going to get some runs out of the inning. Not so. Urias bore down. He got an infield pop-up for the first out, and then back-to-back K’s to wriggle off the hook. He ran into the dugout with only a one-run deficit, something that had seemed impossible five minutes earlier. It was vintage 2020 El Culichi.
One batter too many for Urias
However, Dave Roberts should have left it at that. Instead, he sent Urias out in the seventh, and he promptly gave up a solo home run to Michael Perez to make it 2-0 Pirates, thus erasing all the hard work of the previous inning. It hardly mattered after that, Phil Bickford gave up another run in the seventh and then new Dodger Robbie Erlin gave up a two-run homer in the eighth, giving the Pirates a 5-0 lead. Rios’s home run accounted for the final 5-1 score.
Back on the horse Tuesday afternoon
That’s baseball. Some days, the lowly Pirates are better than you. The Dodgers will probably have a short memory on this one and come back strong the rest of the series, but we shall see. The next match-up is Tuesday at 3:35 pm. Tony Gonsolin vs. Bryse Wilson. Then, one more game on this road trip on Wednesday morning before we head back to Chavez Ravine and a match-up with the Phillies.
Cans of Corn…
- Mookie Betts got a bloop single to extend his hitting streak to 10 straight games
- Chris Taylor took a nasty foul ball off his knee late in the game. He’ll sit on Tuesday, day-to-day after that.
- Wednesday’s game looks like it might feature the debut of highly touted prospect Ryan Pepiot on the mound.
- With this road trip, the Dodgers are going through a stretch of 31 games in 30 days. It will tax the pitching staff for sure. Look for a bunch of spot starts this month, especially until Andrew Heaney is back on line.
