Justin Turner‘s two solo home runs, and some fine bullpen work was just enough to lead the Dodgers over the Pirates 2-1 on a dreary Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are terrible so the Dodgers should beat them easily, but they narrowly escaped with a win. A win is a win is a win nonetheless.
Tyler Anderson took the mound for the Bucs. Fortunately the Dodgers and more specifically Justin Turner has completely owned Anderson over the years. So it was no surprise when Turner’s two solo home runs, one in the first inning and the second in the third came against Anderson. The Dodger’s bats did nothing the rest of the game. The Dodgers recorded seven hits, (two being the Turner homers) other than Albert Pujols going 2 for 3, the only other hits in the game came from Chris Taylor and AJ Pollock singles.
Tony Gonsolin was activated off the injured list to make his season debut. This was his first start since last October. I use the word “start” with air quotations because catman lasted only 1.2 innings allowing one earned run on two hits, walking five and striking out four. Obviously Gonsolin is nowhere near to being built up yet, and coming off of injury not having pitched in over half a year one could understand why he did not have his best command. However if Gonsolin is not going to be able to pitch more than an inning and a half then the Dodgers are going to be in the exact same position, having to burn their bullpen once per week.
Speaking of that bullpen, they pitched well. Five relievers followed Gonsolin, including Kenley Jansen, tossing 7.1 scoreless frames while striking out five while allowing just one hit. In the bottom of the ninth with the Dodgers up 2-1, Kenley was on the mound finishing up a four-out save. After a lead-off walk, two outs later the Pirates sent up Ke’Bryan Hayes to the dish looking to tie the game with a runner in scoring position. Hayes smacked a liner back to the box that whizzed by Kenley’s face. He had to dodge matrix style, making an excellent snag to end the game. The Dodgers won, and picked up a game in the NL West standings. The Dodgers have now won twelve consecutive games over the Pirates, dating back over three years.
Great to see the Big Blue Machine clicking on all cylinders.
But remember, these are the last place Bucs. The Dodgers should be taking advantage of this weak part of the schedule. Good to see them finally not playing down to inferior ball clubs’ level.