Steve Webb
PHOENIX, AZ — Though the offense has been (literally) hit or miss, the one thing that the Dodgers have been able to count on in this first week of the season is solid starting pitching, and Thursday night in Phoenix was no exception. Taking the hill for the second time of the year, Dustin May was spectacular, attacking the zone and flummoxing D-back hitters with his internet-breaking pitches. He went six solid innings, and despite a sometimes shaky bullpen, the Dodgers hang on to win their first road game of the year, a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This was a tale of two games, really. There were the first six innings, in which the Dodgers completely dominated the proceedings. May was practically untouchable and the offense was scoring on the regular, getting out to a 4-0 lead. Chris Taylor, J.D. Martinez, and James Outman all drove in runs to stake the Dodgers to the advantage.
Then, in the sixth, May came out a little wild and walk the leadoff man who came around to score on a double from Josh Rojas, ending May’s string of twelve scoreless innings to start the season. Still, May was every bit as good in this one as he was in his season debut, attacking the zone all night and eating up hitter after hitter with straight-up fire. His final line for the night: 6.0 IP, 2 H 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
After Freddie Freeman got the run back in the top of 7th with his first home run of the year, things got a little interesting. An ineffective Alex Vesia cost the Dodgers a run, and Yency Almonte came within a couple of feet of giving up a game-tying, three-run homer off the bat of Josh Rojas. Thankfully, the Rojas blast sailed foul and the D-backs would not challenge again. Phil Bickford pitched around a leadoff double in the 8th, and Evan Phillips retired the side 1-2-3 in the 9th to secure the Dodgers’ third win in a row.
But the story of the night was Dustin May, a fact not lost on manager Dave Roberts. “I think with Dustin, it’s the quality of strikes,” said Roberts after the game. “This is as clean and consistent of a throwing delivery that he’s had, which is allowing for the ball to move late in the hitting zone. So with that, he’s going to be efficient, because guys are gonna want to swing the bat early against him. I think for us, just being able to allow him to go deep in games like he has been, that’s a tell for his success.”
And though no-one quite expected things to be this good, this early, starting pitching is going to be a key element of the team’s success the rest of the way.
Short hops
- Scary moment when Mookie took a pitch off the helmet in the 8th inning. He seemed okay, but yikes!
- No Vargas or Rojas once again — Betts and Taylor manned the middle infield
- Freeman went oppo taco for his homer, hit a ridiculously high heater to left center.
- Will Smith continues to pound the ball, he now has an OPS of 1.377.
- Other than the three homers last week, Trayce Thompson doesn’t have a hit this season.
- May’s ERA is now 0.69.
- I don’t think Alex Vesia is really thriving with the pitch clock. He seems uncomfortable on the mound right now.
- Phil Bickford touched 97 mph on a couple of pitches. Nice.
- Different game time on Friday: 6:30 first pitch, Kershaw vs. Mad Bum for the second time in a week.
