Steve Webb
ST. LOUIS, MO — “What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours,” is how the song goes. And boy howdy was that true for your Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night. Twenty-four little hours after getting pulverized by the newly resurgent Cardinals by a score of 16-8, the Dodgers completely shut the Redbird offense down en route to a 5-0 shutout victory. This win was secured by great clutch performances on the mound, in the field, and at the plate.
On the pitching side of things, it was Tony Gonsolin‘s turn to toe the rubber for the Dodgers. And though he wasn’t as efficient as he might have liked, he was still pretty damn solid nevertheless, navigating through five shutout innings on just under 100 pitches. It wasn’t quite the workhorse start that the Dodgers were hoping for to ease the pressure on the taxed bullpen, but it was plenty good to secure the Cat Man his second victory of the season. He still needs to be stretched out a bit more, but Gonsolin’s consistently good performances are becoming a major storyline as the Dodgers move into the summer months. Finishing up the ballgame with one inning apiece were Brusdar Graterol, Shelby Miller, Caleb Ferguson, and making his debut in the 9th, call-up Tyler Cyr.
“I feel like the first two or three innings felt really long, threw a lot of pitches, and the fourth and the fifth were a little bit better,” Gonsolin said in postgame interviews. “But overall, just kind of threw too many pitches.”
“Our bullpen was great tonight and so it was also good to see [Cyr] get an inning tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It was good to get back in the win column.”
Though the pitching was solid, the game went into the middle innings with the Dodgers clinging to a 1-0 lead, a lead that materialized in the top of the 5th when Chris Taylor finally cashed in one of the Dodgers’ four leadoff doubles in the early innings. Still, a one-run lead against a team that just hung a football score on you the night before is hardly safe. In fact it was very much in jeopardy when Paul Goldschmidt led off the top of the 6th with a blast off Brusdar Graterol that seemed to be destined for the seats in right center. However, making his best defensive play of the season, James Outman timed a jump at the wall perfectly, and the rookie snatched the ball out of the sky just before it landed in the planter boxes beyond the fence. What a catch!
“Actually, turned the wrong way to start, but then I spun, and I think the biggest thing is I just timed the jump correctly this time,” Outman said. “I just wanted to make sure I jumped early enough to give myself space between the wall and myself.”
Now, it was time for the offense to get going, which finally happened in the top of the 8th. A Miguel Vargas single and a David Peralta walk bookended a couple of Dodger outs, which brought Mookie Betts to the plate to face reliever Chris Stratton. Betts didn’t waste any time. He ambushed the first pitch he saw and drilled it to right center. It landed among the Dodger relievers in the visitors’ bullpen, and gave the Dodgers’ a 4-0 lead.
“I think I found like a little cue that I can keep repeating over and over again, so just doing that and fortunately, I’m getting some pretty decent pitches to hit,” Betts said after the game. “So, I just got to keep on swinging at the right pitches.”
They would tack on a bit of insurance when Freddie Freeman and Will Smith came up with some two-out magic of their own, thus making it a four-run rally with two outs, which is how you win ballgames, sports fans.
Cans of Corn…
- Tony’s final line on the night: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K.
- With this performance, Gonsolin’s ERA is now 1.13.
- Trayce Thompson Watch: Still no hits in over a month. He got robbed in his last at bat by a nice catch in centerfield by Lars Nootbar.
- Saturday’s game is an early start for Fox TV, 4:00 pm Pacific Time. We’ll see how far Noah and his magical blister last this time. It’s going to be Syndergaard vs. righty Miles Mikolas in this one.
- After that, it’s Clayton’s turn to pitch on Sunday afternoon, making one more start before leaving the team on his bereavement leave.
- Likely that Gavin Stone will get to make another start in Atlanta on Monday against Ronald Acuna and the high-flying Braves. Welcome back to the Show, kid.
