After defeating Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a three-game series, the Los Angeles Dodgers faced Johnny Cueto for the fourth time this season.
Cueto entered the matchup 2-0 with a 3.63 ERA and 0.90 WHIP against the Dodgers in 2016. He held them to one run over 7.1 innings during a start at Dodger Stadium on April 16. What’s more, Cueto had at least seven strikeouts in each of the three outings.
While Rich Hill’s debut with the Dodgers was a primary storyline, and the southpaw lived up to the billing, Cueto more than matched his counterpart through the early stages of the game.
The right-hander retired the side in order in the first, ending the inning by getting Justin Turner to whiff on a changeup.
Cueto worked around a one-out walk in the second, and set the Dodgers down in order in the third. He retired Corey Seager to start the bottom of the fourth inning, only for his no-hit work to come to an end immediately after.
Cueto hung a slider and Turner lined it just over the wall in left-center field. Video is courtesy the Dodgers’ Twitter account:
"It might be enough…it is gone!" ?https://t.co/QTz46x6qBa
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 25, 2016
Turner’s 24th home run of the season, extending his career high, held up Wednesday night in the Dodgers’ 1-0 victory. “He was trying to go down and away, but he left it up and middle-in,” Turner said of the at-bat.
“It always seems to work out where we get Bumgarner and Cueto. They’re really good pitchers, so you just try to bear down and take whatever you can get off those guys.”
