Jeff Birney
Dodgers Sweep the Pirates as the NL West Race Tightens
The Dodgers went without home runs Wednesday night in their victory over the Bucs, instead relying on Yasmani Grandal and Chris Taylor’s singles and double for all runs scored.
Although the night went without homers, there was plenty of excitement to go around in the form of pitcher drama. Rich Hill bunted for a single in the fourth and ended up at third after two wild pitches from Pirates pitcher Richard Rodriguez.
Hill tried to score after tagging up on a Max Muncy fly-out, but was caught at home in an awkward head-first… slide (if you want to call it that.) Hill exited the game after with neck stiffness and is reportedly day-to-day.
Reliever Daniel Hudson got into a bit of a kerfuffle with first-base umpire Jeff Nelson over his mound set-up. Whatever was said (and that definitely looked like an f-bomb) got Hudson ejected.
The game tightened up in later innings when Edward Paredes gave up a two-run shot in the eighth, yet Dave Roberts sent Kenley Jansen in to finish the job and got a five-out save.
The Dodgers won, 6-4.
Friday marks the beginning of the Freeway Series as the Dodgers head south to Anaheim and face the Angels for three.
Game time is 7:07 pm, PST.
