Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Hello, World. Your Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers keep shutting down teams. Subsequently, the team keeps winning. For the seventh time this month, the Dodgers have held an opponent to two earned runs or fewer. This time around, Tony Gonsolin got the start and looked very good on the mound, save one pitch. he offense on the other hand, got three homers of the their own, and the Dodgers beat the Rockies 4-1 to extend the team’s winning streak to seven games.
For Gonsolin, it was a nice bounce-back outing after being a bit shaky (6 ER) in his start against the Padres last weekend. It was a completely different story on Saturday at Chavez Ravine. He went six innings and held the Rockies to a single run, a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the game. After that initial hiccup, though, it was smooth sailing for the Cat Man. After that first home run (to Ezequiel Tovar), Gonsolin only surrendered two other hits and walked one for a very quick and efficient six innings of baseball.
“I thought it was his best outing in quite some time,” manager Dave Roberts said of Gonsolin’s night. “I thought every throw had conviction. Everything was with conviction. He made pitches when he needed to, pounded the strike zone, used his entire pitch mix. … It was good to see Tony go out there and really pitch the way we’re used to seeing him throw the baseball.”
“If I’ve learned anything this year it’s that if you get hit in the face, you just keep going,” said Gonsolin of his recent struggles. “I was trying to execute pitches. I thought I did a much better job of executing pitches today. And we played really good defense.”
With the acquisition of Lance Lynn and Clayton Kershaw‘s return to the active roster, suddenly this starting rotation is looking a whole lot different than it did even a few weeks ago. And with the impending return of Walker Beuhler just a few weeks away, the Dodgers are looking like a much more formidable postseason opponent.
Offensively, it was Dr. Longball who did all the work on Saturday. Will Smith got the scoring started in the bottom of the first with a solo home run. Then, in the second, James Outman continued his hot-hitting ways by banging a two-run shot over the right field fence. Finally Amed Rosario ripped a screaming liner into the left field pavilion in the bottom of the seventh. Not a lot from the lineup, but with leadoff man Mookie Betts on the bench with an illness and Freddie Freeman going hitless, it was about all that you might expect. In all the offense collected eight hits. In addition to the three dingers, Jason Heyward and Kike Hernandez both had multi-hit games for the home team, giving the lineup up a lot more length than we were seeing earlier in the season.
With the series win secured, the Dodgers go for a four-game sweep of the Rox on Sunday afternoon. It’s Julio Urias‘s turn to shine, hoping to build on a couple good starts in a row. Game time is 1:10 pm. Let’s go!
