The Los Angeles Dodgers faced their first rough patch of the season last week, dropping a combined six consecutive games to the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. They have since responded the way that any good team would though, winning four straight, including defeating the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep.
Runs were at a premium with two former Vanderbilt pitchers in Walker Buehler and Sonny Gray on the mound. Both teams were held off the scoreboard through the first five innings.
The Dodgers’ offense finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth against Gray when Austin Barnes led off the inning with a walk. After he stole second base, the Reds decided to intentionally walk Cody Bellinger with two outs to bring up A.J. Pollock, who did not have a hit in the series to that point.
Pollock broke out of his slump in a big way, launching a hanging breaking ball into the left-center field bleachers for his second home run of the season.
"For the 'Gram! For the win!"
(: @Dodgers) pic.twitter.com/CL5BuL6MmS
— Dodger Blue (@DodgerBlue1958) April 17, 2019
The home run was not only a significant one because it gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead, but it also marked the 32nd straight home game that they have hit a homer. That tied a Major League record set by the Colorado Rockies in 1999.
On the mound, Buehler turned in by far his best outing of the season after getting hit around a little bit in his first few starts.
Buehler was almost untouchable on Wednesday afternoon, tossing 6.1 innings while giving up just three hits and one unearned run. He finished with eight strikeouts against one walk.
Buehler retired 12 straight batters at one point and became the fourth straight pitcher to provide the Dodgers a quality start, which is something that only happened twice throughout the entire 2018 season.
