Home runs from Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger carried the Los Angeles Dodgers past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game series at PNC Park. The victory extended the Dodgers’ winning streak to four games and marked an eighth consecutive win on the road.
Moreover, they’ve now won 14 of their past 18 games, and have hit three home runs in four straight games. The Dodgers’ first homer came courtesy of Pederson, and it was a familiar sight as the blast was his third in as many at-bats against Joe Musgrove, dating back to the World Series.
Singles by Chris Taylor and Max Muncy, coupled with an errant pickoff throw to second base, put two runners in scoring position with nobody out in the third. Matt Kemp’s sacrifice fly extended the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0 before Musgrove could get through the inning.
Puig’s home run to lead off the fourth gave Los Angeles a bigger cushion, and Bellinger’s solo homer in the sixth capped off their scoring. The home run was Puig’s seventh since May 15, while it was Bellinger’s ninth on the season.
The run support was more than enough for Ross Stripling, as he recorded seven strikeouts and held the Pirates to just four hits over five shutout innings. Stripling retired the first four batters and benefitted from a strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out to face the minimum through two innings.
He was only stressed in the bottom of the fifth, when a leadoff single was compounded on Taylor’s fielding error as a dropped ball prevented the Dodgers from at least getting a force out at second base, if not a double play.
Starling Marte’s single to right field loaded the bases with two outs, which is how they were left because Josh Harrison flied out on the first pitch he saw.
Scott Alexander, Josh Fields, Pedro Baez and Daniel Hudson each threw a scoreless inning in relief to extend what’s been an impressive showing by the Dodgers bullpen of late. The Pirates did start the eighth inning against Baez with a walk and base hit.
He worked out of the trouble by inducing a pair of fly outs to center field, the second of which resulted in Kiké Hernandez throwing out Adam Frazier at third base on his attempt to tag.
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