Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Remember the year 2000? Britney Spears was on the charts, Clayton Kershaw was in middle school and Al Gore was on the campaign trail talking about the Social Security “lockbox”. And, it was also the last time the the Pittsburgh Pirates came into town and swept the Dodgers. Well, history has repeated itself in the worst way possible. In an embarrassing loss, the team took it on the chin on Wednesday night, losing to the (once) lowly Pirates by a score of 8-4 for their third loss in a row. They have now dropped 5 out of 6 games to Pittsburgh, which accounts for nearly a third of all Dodger losses this year. That is, um, not great.
Dodgers outplayed in every facet of the game
Maybe the grind of the “31 games in 30 days” thing is finally catching up to the Boys in Blue. Maybe the Dodgers were looking past this series to the marquee matchup with the Mets scheduled for the weekend. Whatever the reason, the Dodgers were flat in this series, and just couldn’t get hits when they were needed, leaving a host of runners in scoring position. And don’t even get me started on all the outs the runners made on the base paths in this one (answer: a lot).
It just was bad baseball. So bad that not even an otherworldly Mookie Betts could save them. In fact, beyond Mookie’s 3-for-5 night, the Dodgers got plenty of hits in this one, twelve on the night. However, they just couldn’t come up with a clutch hit that would get them back into the game.
Bucs get out to a lead early
Of course, it didn’t help much that the Dodgers were playing from behind the entire game. The Bucs scored in the top of the first on an RBI single from Josh VanMeter and kept the lead until the bottom of the fourth, when Chris Taylor tied it with a RBI single of his own. However, in the next inning, Bryan Reynold mashed a hanging curve ball into the right field seats for a two-run homer, and the Bucs were up again.
And there they stayed. Things got pretty sloppy after that. The Dodgers just couldn’t seem to get out of their own way in this one, making a lot of bad decisions on the basepaths. It looked like they might have a chance to tie it in the seventh when Trea Turner hit a flyball that looked like it might score Gavin Lux from third. However, Lux hesitated a bit on the tag-up, and got gunned down by a nice throw from Reynolds to home. It was that kind of night for the Dodgers.
Mookie’s homer is an afterthought
The Pirates got five runs in the final two frames of this one to put the game out of reach. The extra runs on the scoreboard made Mookie Betts’ home run in the bottom of the ninth practically irrelevant.
Let’s be frank. The Dodgers dropped a deuce on the mattress in this one. They need to shake it off as quickly as possible or the Mets will smack them around in the four game set that will get underway on Thursday. Tony Gonsolin will start against Taijuan Walker. 7:10 first pitch.
Let’s get it together, Dodgers. Don’t make me pull this car over.
Cans of Corn…
- What’s going on with the baserunning? Terrible.
- Freddie Freeman left 5 guys in scoring position in an 0-for-5 night.
- Trea got a hit, streak extends to 24 games.
- Mitch White didn’t pitch that badly, but maybe hung around a couple hitters too long.
- The Pirates played like this was their World Series. The Dodgers, um, didn’t.
- Mets series has now become a definite gut-check for the Dodgers. Do they have the heart to get up off the mat and play good baseball this weekend? We shall see…
