Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — What does every little baseball coach preach to his kids? “Put the ball in play, boys; good things can happen.” Well the Dodgers took that time-tested advice again and again on Sunday afternoon’s 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The team scored six times, but only once as the result of a base hit; every other time, it was just good old situational hitting. Moving runners with productive outs, taking the extra base when it’s given to you, and driving them home by any means necessary. So, while there may not have been any hitting “star” in this one, there was ample reason to smile as the Dodgers swept the Redbirds out of town.
In addition to Chris Taylor‘s clutch RBI double with two outs in the bottom of the 4th, the Dodgers scored on three RBI ground outs, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly. Talk about taking what the other team will give you!
“It was a clinic in team offense,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I think we had an opportunity in that first inning and we couldn’t capitalize situationally, but after that, scoring four runs on an out, that’s pretty impressive.”
As for the pitching, starter Noah Syndergaard finally got his first win in Dodger Blue on the last day of April. He gave up a couple of early runs, surrendering two in the top of the 2nd inning, but after that he was pretty solid. He didn’t really go for strikeouts in this one, but really mixed in his curveball well and got a lot of weak contact that resulted in outs.
“Yeah, it feels really nice to get the first win out of the way,” Syndergaard said. “All in all, I think it was a really good team win today, really nice series to finish off a sweep. As far as what was going for me, I think I just did a pretty good job of keeping them off balance.”
Plus, after Thor lasted 5.1 innings, the Dodger pen was nails behind him in this one. Alex Vesia and Yency Almonte were both great and Caleb Ferguson, Brusdar Graterol, and Evan Phillips all put up zeroes. It looked much more like the Dodgers 2022 bullpen and hopefully that level of excellence can be sustained going forward.
In all a wonderful weekend, and great ending to a sometimes frustrating month of April. On to May!
Cans of Corn…
- Almonte and Vesia pitching well is a potential game-changer for this team.
- Loved Jason Heyward and his hustle double. There is a reason he got that big contract, even if he didn’t quite live up to the billing.
- After the game, Doc would not commit to Gavin Stone starting on Wednesday, but it looks to be trending in that direction.
- Trea Turner and the Phillies roll into town on Monday. Big news for the Fightin’ Phils is that Bryce Harper‘s return to the lineup seems imminent, maybe Tuesday.
- On Monday, we’re back to Tony Gonsolin‘s spot in the rotation. Hopefully, he’ll be able to go a little deeper this time around.
- Game time Monday: 7:10 pm. Taijuan Walker on the mound for Philadelphia.
