After a short three-game homestand, the Los Angeles Dodgers were back on the road, starting with a trip to PNC Park to face the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Tuesday was the beginning of a six-game road trip, and the Dodgers could not have started it off on a better note.
Dodgers 12, Pirates 3: key takeaways
Eric Lauer matches Paul Skenes
The Dodgers entered the game facing a David and Goliath-type pitching match-up with Paul Skenes going against Eric Lauer. But surprisingly, Lauer nearly matched Skenes in his start.
Lauer allowed two home runs in the first inning, and it seemed like the day was going to be short for the left-hander. But instead, he bounced back to throw three consecutive shutout innings and recorded two outs in the sixth before exiting.
Lauer’s day ended with 5.2 innings pitched, allowing two runs on three hits with five strikeouts and no walks.
Skenes was similar in his start, recording an extra out but allowing more hits overall.
Mookie Betts hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on a single from Max Muncy, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Tucker.
The Dodgers continued to generate traffic, but didn’t cash in again until the sixth inning. Freeman doubled and scored on a two-out single from Muncy that deflected off Brandon Lowe’s glove to tie the game.
In total, the Dodgers scored two runs off Skenes over his six innings of work as he also allowed six hits, struck out seven and walked two.
Dodgers offense breaks out in seventh
With a 2-2 tie, the Dodgers’ offense exploded with 10 runs in the seventh inning that lasted 40 minutes.
Dalton Rushing and Alex Freeland started them off with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Rushing then scored when Pirates catcher Henry Davis tried to pick off at third, but instead threw the ball away to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.
From there, things completely fell apart for the Pirates. Shohei Ohtani doubled to make it 4-2 and Andy Pages slugged a two-run homer. Freeman walked, and Betts singled before Tucker reached on a fielder’s choice and an error that allowed the seventh run to score.
Ryan Ward singled in the eighth run of the game and loaded the bases. Freeland and Ohtani then drew back-to-back bases loaded walks that gave the Dodgers their 10th run.
Pages hit a sac fly to score another run for the Dodgers, and Freeman capped off the inning with an RBI single. That gave the Dodgers 12 runs total and 10 in the inning, and it also represented the 2,500th hit of Freeman’s career.
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