LA Dodgers 5, Pittsburgh 2
When: 10:10 PM ET, Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
Temperature:
65°
Umpires:
Home -
Clint Fagan, 1B -
Rob Drake, 2B -
Tony Randazzo, 3B -
Gerry Davis
Attendance:
40719
By The Sports Xchange
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda was at the top of his game, and Los Angeles rookie Cody Bellinger continued to expand his.
Maeda took a shutout into the ninth inning, Bellinger homered, and the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 5-2 victory Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
Maeda's solid outing helped the Dodgers (20-14) capture a season-high fifth straight win and their 10th in the past 12 games.
"His last two turns have been really good, and he was efficient, he was pounding the strike zone, secondary (pitches) were real good," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "So yeah, I was absolutely pulling for him to complete (the game). But you get to a certain point, you want to make sure you win the game, and I didn't want him to have a sour taste after that brilliant outing."
After serving up a leadoff double to Josh Harrison to open the game, Maeda retired 17 of the next 18 batters. Maeda (3-2) blanked the Pirates until Francisco Cervelli smacked a two-run homer in the ninth.
Maeda gave up two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks in a career-high 8 1/3 innings. Reliever Grant Dayton got the final two outs.
"We needed to hit the breaking ball and take that away from him, and we weren't able to do that," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "He just kept throwing it, and he didn't throw a lot of fastballs, he showed it every now and then. We weren't able to redirect it, we didn't take anything away."
Cervelli and Harrison were the only Pirates to experience any success off Maeda.
Cervelli's homer was his third of the season and extended his hitting streak to six games. Harrison had three of the team's five hits as the Pirates (14-20) lost their fourth in a row.
Harrison said Maeda and many members of the Los Angeles staff pitched "backward" during the entire series.
"(Maeda) mixed pitches from the jump," said Harrison, who recorded his team-high ninth multi-hit game of the season. "He threw (the breaking ball) a lot. I won't say counts that are fastball counts, but more than often he mixed in a couple on 2-0 (counts) and kept guys off balance. ... Knowing when you can mix in all of your pitches for strikes, you know you can be effective. And that's what he was tonight."
Pirates starter Chad Kuhl didn't fare as well. Kuhl (1-3) allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings.
After a walk to Justin Turner in the first inning, Bellinger homered with two outs for a 2-0 Los Angeles edge.
"It's a shame what happened in the first inning. That's just unacceptable," said Kuhl, who is 2-1 with a 5.06 ERA in three career starts against the Dodgers.
It was Bellinger's sixth homer in 51 at-bats since being recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City on April 25. Bellinger became the second-fastest player in franchise history to hit six long balls, getting there in 14 career games. Matt Kemp hit six in 13 games in 2006.
Bellinger also robbed Gregory Polanco of a base hit by making a diving catch of a line drive in left in the fourth inning.
"It's been crazy," said Bellinger said of his stint with the club. "It's been fun, and I'm enjoying every second of it. And like I said before, they make it easy on me, so I'm just trying to go along for the ride and help them win."
Chase Utley went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs for Los Angeles, which outscored Pittsburgh 21-6 during the series. Yasmani Grandal was 3-for-3 and drove in a run.
"We weren't able to game-plan and execute against Bellinger very well, Grandal very well, Utley very well," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "And that hurt."
Utley hit an RBI single in the first to make it 3-0, and he added a run-scoring double in the fourth to boost the lead to 4-0.
NOTES: Dodgers LF Andrew Toles is expected to undergo surgery within a week to 10 days to repair his torn ACL in his right knee. Toles hurt himself chasing a double by Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen on Tuesday in the seventh inning of the Dodgers' 4-3, 10-inning win. ... Dodgers OF/1B Scott Van Slyke and OF Brett Eibner were recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to replace Toles and LHP Adam Liberatore (left groin strain). The club also reinstated RHP Josh Ravin from the disabled list and optioned him to Oklahoma City. ... Pirates 2B Adam Frazier (left hamstring strain) went 2-for-3 with a walk Wednesday in his second rehab start with Triple-A Indianapolis.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Pittsburgh |
|
LA Dodgers |
Chad Kuhl
|
Player |
Kenta Maeda
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
5.0 |
IP |
8.1 |
4 |
Strikeouts |
5 |
6 |
Hits |
5 |
7.20 |
ERA |
2.16 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Pittsburgh
|
5 |
1 |
9 |
.156 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
LA Dodgers
|
8 |
1 |
14 |
.276 |
10 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |