Steve Webb
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Our prospects are better than your prospects. They just are. And that’s why we don’t go around trading them willy-nilly. A couple of days after James Outman had a debut for the ages, it was highly-touted infielder Miguel Vargas‘s turn to show the league what he can do. And did he ever. He got couple of hits and drove in two runs in his first night of big league action. Put that together with a fantastic start from Julio Urias and another Houdini escape job from Evan Phillips and it adds up to a 3-0 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park on Wednesday night.
Vargas double puts Dodgers out in front
There wasn’t a ton of offense for the Dodgers in this one, but they made good use of the hits they were able to get. After a scoreless first, Trayce Thompson led off against starter Alex Cobb with a walk. Then, he promptly stole second base to get into scoring position. And after a Gavin Lux strikeout, it was rookie Miguel Vargas digging in for his first MLB at-bat. The 22-year-old third baseman has been tearing it up all year in OKC, hitting .291 with 15 dingers and a .879 OPS. But would his game be ready for the next level?
Vargas answered that question with a resounding yes. He smacked a 2-2 sinker into the deepest part of Oracle Park. It was a ball that would have been out of Dodger Stadium and a dozen other big league parks. But, as it was, it was plenty good: a run-scoring double that one-hopped off the warning track into the stands. Thompson scored automatically on the play, and five pitches into his big-league career, Vargas had himself a hit and an RBI.
Dodgers tack on a couple of small-ball runs
While the first two games were slugfests for the Dodgers, this one was much more of a tight one. However, after Vargas got them on the board in the second, they managed to score a couple more during the game for a somewhat comfortable lead going into the ninth.
In the fourth, Max Muncy led off with a single and moved to second when Trayce Thompson walked. Gavin Lux hit a productive groundout to the right side to move both runners into scoring position. Then, guess who? It was Miguel Vargas’s turn again. And, while he didn’t rip the cover off the ball as he had before. He did what he needed to do with a man on third and only one out. He put the ball in play. He hit a bouncing ball to third that new Giant JD Davis fielded cleanly. But Davis made the wrong decision. He tried to gun down Max Muncy coming home, but threw late. The Dodgers scored a run and everybody was safe on what was ruled an infield hit and RBI for Vargas.
Then in the 7th, the Dodgers had a classic “Get ’em on, Get ’em over, Get ’em in” rally from the days of yore. It started with a James Outman single. Then on the second pitch of the next at-bat to Austin Barnes, Outman broke for second. Wilmer Flores vacated his position to cover the bag and Barnsey, in a very nice bit of hitting, smacked an opposite field single through the hole left by Flores. Outman kept going on the play and ended up at third. When Mookie Betts lofted a fly to right a couple of pitches later, Outman scored easily on play. Absolute. Classic.
Julio cruises through six scoreless
Meanwhile, Julio Urias brought the good stuff to the park in this one. He sent the first eleven Giants down in order, and looked marvelous while he was at it. In fact, the only hits that Urias surrendered through the first six innings all came with two out and were all pretty much of the harmless variety. He ran into trouble in the seventh, but more on that in a moment. Urias’s line on what was a very good night for the lefty: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K.
Phillips to the rescue once again
Dave Roberts sent Urias out for the seventh, hoping to squeeze three more outs out of his starter. But, it was not to be. JD Davis led off the inning with a single, and Luis Gonzalez followed that up with a little nubber to second that Gavin Lux couldn’t make a play on. When Joey Bart got his second hit of the night, a single off the glove of Trea Turner into left, the bases were suddenly juiced with nobody out. And that, my friends, was the end of Julio Urias for the night.
For the second straight night, Evan Phillips was called on to extricate the Dodgers out of a jam that wasn’t of his own doing. And, for the second straight night, he did just that, with a little help from the Giants. First, he struck out Dixon Machado on four pitches. Then, up came pinch hitter Mike Yastrzemski looking to do some damage. Yastrzemski had just hit a walk-off grand slam a couple of weeks before, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibilities that he repeat the feat in this one. Phillips started him off with a cutter that just missed inside. Then, Phillips went back to the well one more time, throwing the same pitch in the same location.
Yaz got some wood on it and hit a fly ball into shallow right. It looked for a moment like it might drop in for a single, but Mookie Betts closed hard. Betts made the play fairly easily, and when he looked up, he noticed that Luis Gonzalez had strayed way too far off second. Betts tossed to Trea Turner for an easy double play.
Phillips had done it again.
More heart attacks from Kimbrel
Then, after the Dodgers failed to score in the eighth and ninth, it was up to closer Craig Kimbrel to shut the door. Thing is, with Kimbrel this season, doors don’t get shut so easy. So even though the Dodgers had a nice three-run cushion, Kimbrel made sure that it would be exciting all the way to the last pitch. With one out, Kimbrel loaded up the bases with a walk, a single, and a hit batsman. Ugh. Here we go again.
Kimbrel got a Mike Yastrzemski pop out for the second out of the inning, which bought up Austin Slater with a chance to tie up the ballgame, or even walk it off. He would do neither. He got behind Kimbrel 0-2, and then Kimbrel got a very generous call for strike three to end the game. Sigh of relief. Game over. Dodgers keep rolling.
Kershaw to throw the matinee finale
Now winners of seven straight against the Giants, the Dodgers match up one last time against their in-state rivals before heading home for a big series with the Padres. It’ll be Clayton Kershaw on the mound, looking to shake off the rough ending of his last start in Colorado. Kershaw hasn’t really been that great since before the All-Star break, so a great start here would come in handy right about now. This one has a 12:30 start time, so figure out an excuse to tell the boss, so you can spend your afternoon glued to SNLA. Let’s go for the sweep, Dodgers!
Cans of Corn…
- Never gets old to see families celebrating their boy’s first knock in the Show.
- Can’t forget to mention that Vargas promptly stole third after his double. All the feels.
- Since Vargas hit a ground-rule double for his first big-league hit, it took Blake Treinen negotiating with a Giant fan in the stands to secure the ball’s safe return. The fan seemed pretty cool about it, and traded the Vargas ball for one autographed by Treinen.
- Urias continues to be the Mr. Reliable of this staff. So underrated it’s criminal.
- Sooner or later Roberts has got to cut bait on Kimbrel. Doesn’t he?
- The save by Kimbrel moves him past Dennis Eckersly (remember him?) into seventh place all-time with 391 (19 this season).
- Bummer news: JT to the IL. Might be back for the Minnesota series next week.
- Two straight four-game sweeps of the Giants would be sa-weeet!
