Eric Lauer has enjoyed success against the Los Angeles Dodgers dating back to his time with the San Diego Padres. And after taking a tough-luck loss last week, the Milwaukee Brewers starter turned in a scoreless outing in the series opener at Dodger Stadium.
Lauer only pitched five innings in the Brewers’ win on Monday night despite allowing five hits and issuing two walks while only collecting a pair of strikeouts. Lauer was aided by Christian Yelich throwing out Justin Turner at home plate to end the second inning, and the Dodgers leaving the bases loaded in the fourth.
Lauer improved to 7-1 with a 2.37 ERA in 11 career starts against the Dodgers. In 93 games against other opponents, he’s 23-28 with a 4.31 ERA.
“I don’t know the answer,” manager Dave Roberts said when asked about his team’s ongoing struggles against the left-hander. “I think he’s evolved as a pitcher. The velocity, kind of the characteristics, he’s evolved. But the results, us versus Lauer, we just can’t crack the code. So you got to give him credit.
“He’s pitched us well, and did again tonight. So we got him out of the game in five innings, but their bullpen was good. And we just couldn’t put anything together. I thought early, I thought we hit some balls well, just didn’t have anything to show for it. But again, you got to give their staff credit.
“They do a great job game planning. Kind of what they do is prevent runs. They match up, they’ve got good arms. So you combine that with the talent that they have with the arms. They’ve done a good job, they caught the ball, they play good defense. Yelich made a couple of nice plays. So yeah, you expect to play close ballgames against those guys.”
Turner credits Lauer, Brewers pitchers
Turner had two of the Dodgers’ hits off Lauer — both singles that were followed by at least the next batter reaching as well.
“I thought we took good at-bats and hit a lot of balls hard and just didn’t get rewarded for them,” Turner said. “So that’s baseball. Things happen and we’ll show up tomorrow and try to figure out how to win tomorrow.”
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