Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — If you like good pitching, the first five innings of Saturday’s ball game at Dodger Stadium were for you. If you like an offensive display, there were fewer pleasures to be had early on in this Saturday evening contest against the Cincinnati Reds. However, the Dodgers finally broke through in this pitchers’ duel in the sixth inning, putting up another big inning, and then coasting to a 5-2 win for their fifth straight victory.
Urias, Greene lock horns
It was quite the show that the two starters put on in this one. Julio Urias looked like a completely different pitcher from how he looked last Sunday in Colorado. His velocity was up, his control was near-perfect, and his pitches had much more bite than they did in his disastrous season debut. For five innings, Urias mowed through the Reds lineup, only allowing a walk and a groundball single that caromed off second baseman Max Muncy‘s glove into center field.
“Honestly, really good,” Urías said in Spanish when asked how he had felt after the game. “I think the most important thing is that I feel good with my mechanics and that’s what I felt today. We made an adjustment during the week in the bullpen and we saw the results today.”
Only problem was that the Reds’ rookie flamethrower Hunter Greene was matching Urias pitch for pitch. In only his second major league start, the graduate of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks had the vaunted Dodger hitters flummoxed as well. Other than an infield single by Trea Turner and another base knock from Cody Bellinger, Greene kept the Dodgers quiet through five.
Throwing a consistently triple-digit fastball, Greene looked poised and professional out on mound, no easy feat when you’re making your first start in a stadium full of your friends and family facing a team you’ve grown up rooting for. Of course, it helped that Greene had an otherworldly fastball. The 22-year-old righthander hit 100 mph or better 39 times during his outing, a new record for the Statcast era.
“It’s a special arm. He’s a great young man,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Greene after the game. “We had our hands full. I know he had a family full of people here supporting him. It was good to see him keep his poise. He was getting us with the fastball and then he was mixing the slider, which was good, and also the changeup. We clearly didn’t get a lot of good swings off him.”
Dodgers break through in the sixth
However, you can keep a good team down only so long, no matter how fast you throw. After Evan Phillips pitched a scoreless frame in the top of the sixth, the Dodgers finally got to Greene in the bottom of the inning. It started, as seems to be the Dodgers’ habit these days, with a hit from the batter in the nine-hole in the lineup. Austin Barnes led off the inning with a seemingly harmless opposite field single to right. However, a couple of pitches later, hot-hitting Trea Turner smacked a fastball from Greene to left field with authority. And when the ball landed among the spectators in the pavilion, the scoreless tie was broken.
Now up 2-0, the Dodgers poured it on. Greene struck out the next batter, Freddie Freeman, but a passed ball allowed Freeman to reach first base, and ended Greene’s night. Then after a two-out single from Edwin Rios and a wild pitch from reliever Buck Farmer, the Dodgers had men on second and third for Chris Taylor. Taylor continued his early-season clutch hitting ways and smacked a solid single to right. The ball was bobbled in the outfield by Aristides Aquino, allowing both runners to score easily.
Dodgers tack on, then hold on
In the seventh inning, after a walk and single put runners at first and third, the Dodgers added one more run of insurance. Freddie Freeman’s warning-track drive was plenty deep to score Gavin Lux from third and good enough for Freeman’s first RBI as a Dodger. Mitch White took over the pitching chores in the eighth, but after a good inning of work, he couldn’t quite bring the ship into port in the ninth. He gave up two earned runs and had to be lifted from the game. Dave Roberts was forced to call on Daniel Hudson to clean up the mess. Hudson did just that and secured his first save of the season, the final out coming on a nifty defensive play from Max Muncy at second.
Series finale on Sunday, then Braves rematch
Let’s face it. The Cincinnati Reds are not that good at baseball. However, these have been three solid victories in this first home series of the year and have done a lot in calming the fan base who’d gotten a little panicked by the lackluster start in Colorado. Now 6-2, the Dodgers have one more game with the Redlegs, a Sunday afternoon affair after the Easter egg hunts are through. Andrew Heaney and his super-duper new slider take the mound against Tyler Mahle. 1:10 first pitch. After that, it’s a NLCS rematch with the Atlanta Braves starting on Monday night.
Cans of Corn…
- Trea Turner now has a 27-game hit streak dating back to last season. It is a little odd to count a streak with a five-month gap in the middle, but there you go.
- Cody Bellinger got two more hits tonight. He now has four multi-hit games in eight starts.
- Hunter Greene looks like the real deal. Maybe the Dodgers need to think about bringing him back to his hometown at some point.
- It’s amazing how many big hits in this early part of the season have been to the opposite field. Good hitting from the Dodgers.
- Every single thing about Julio Urias was a vast improvement over his first start.
- Mitch White, when your team is up by five, all you need to do is throw strikes. Seriously.
- The new Brew Heaven IPA is now on sale at the stadium. A little too fruity for my taste, but it has a cool can.
- Happy Easter, everybody!
