Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — In case you hadn’t heard, baseball is a funny game. The start before his perfect game last week, Domingo German got shelled. And though it’s not quite as extreme, the bottom of the Dodger batting order had a similar turn-around from Sunday’s sad performance in Kansas City. Now, barely 24 hours, later, the bottom of the order was ripping the cover off the ball and leading the way to a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was a welcome return to form for a part of the lineup that’s been surprisingly effective of late.
Michael Grove got the start in this one in place of the injured Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers and Clayton seem to think the IL stint is precautionary and he’ll be good to go post-ASB). He delivered four pretty solid innings and handed it over to the bullpen who pitched five good innings to bring home the win.
But the headline was the offense in numbers 5-9. Combined, Peralta, Heyward, Vargas, and Rojas went 5-for-15 and drove in three runs. An unearned run came off a Jason Heyward liner to first that was mishandled. In the scoring summary tonight, other than a very welcome Max Muncy solo shot, it was all the guys in the back end who were getting it done.
“It was a very good [win],” manager Dave Roberts said. “The way we showed up today, facing an All-Star pitcher [in Mitch Keller] and he had his way with us in Pittsburgh, so for him to play well, it was a good sign. Now, we have to build that momentum. That’s something we haven’t done well this year, but we have an opportunity with five more games going into the break.”
We get some rookie on rookie action on the 4th of July Tuesday when Emmet Sheehan tries to continue his winning ways against Luis Ortiz for the Bucs. 6:10 first pitch, and don’t forget the fireworks.
