Steve Webb
SAN DIEGO, CA — Well, it’s not like the Dodgers ripped the cover off the ball on Saturday, but they got juuuuuuuuuuuuuust enough offense to combine with a great effort of Dustin May and the bullpen to eke out a 2-1 victory over the Padres.
The Dodgers got only a few baserunners off Blake Snell, but luckily for them, they came in a little flurry in the top of the 4th inning. Will Smith worked a two-out walk, and that brought a recently resurgent Chris Taylor to the plate. Taylor, who’s hitting .318 in his last seven games, took a borderline pitch that was called a ball to get ahead in the count. Then, Snell threw a 1-0 changeup that did absolutely nothing and floated right into Taylor’s red zone. CT3 walloped the pitch and it easily cleared the left field fence to put the Dodgers up 2-0.
May, on the other hand, was solid all night, throwing those internet-breaking pitches that were getting most of the Padres mumbling and grumbling back to the San Diego dugout after they took strike three. Though the efficiency is still and area of improvement that May could work on, the results were very impressive: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, and just one walk against six strikeouts.
“It was huge to go out and put up zeros for the guys and be able to come out with the lead and let the bullpen take over,” May said in postgame interviews. “Played really good defense. Hit the ball when we needed to and it was a really good game.”
Six scoreless innings got the ball to the bullpen in very good shape. Caleb Ferguson pitched a clean 7th, leaving it to Brusdar Graterol in the 8th. The Bazooka gave up back-to-back doubles to cut the Dodgers’ advantage to 2-1 before coming up with some big outs on three fairly routine infield ground balls to get out of the inning. In the 9th, Evan Phillips walked a guy, but was great otherwise, getting two strikeouts in the inning to end the game with the Dodgers on top.
In all, it was a clutch when in a nail-biter from a team that’s been in a ton of pressure situations in the last ten years. “I think that’s one of our strengths, is kind of going throughout this season and not getting too high, getting too low but having high expectations for ourselves,” said Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, who served as acting manager while Dave Roberts attended his son’s college graduation from LMU.
So with the first series of the year knotted at one game apiece, the Dodgers look to Julio Urias to pitch them to a victory in the final game of the three game set. It’s a Sunday Night Baseball showcase game on ESPN, 4:10 first pitch. Let’s do this!
Cans of Corn…
- “Just a mistake pitch,” said Taylor of Snell’s cambio that he deposited in the seats. “I was just trying to get something up because all his offspeed is good down in the zone. So yeah, it was just something over the plate.”
- A potent Chris Taylor completely changes this lineup.
- Max Muncy wasn’t feeling great on Saturday, but battled through some flu-like symptoms to play.
- Alex Vesia has been optioned to OKC to work out some of his consistency issues in a safer environment. We’ll see if and when he can make it back to the big club.
- Phillips’ command isn’t what it was last year, but he still looked in control in the 9th.
- Austin Wynn’s contract was picked up by the Rockies. The Dodgers had given him a look at catcher when Will Smith was sideline with the concussion.
- Like to see some hits on Sunday. Like maybe more than three.
