While the Los Angeles Dodgers entered play Saturday night on a torrid pace, offense has been difficult to come by of late. That again proved to be true, as the Milwaukee Brewers came away with a 3-0 victory to set the stage for a rubber match on Sunday.
Zach Davies retired the first five batters faced before Yasiel Puig’s two-out double. His ground ball to third base skipped off Travis Shaw’s glove and rolled into foul territory. Davies and Shaw gave chase, which created an opportunity for Puig once the ball was thrown into second base.
He noticed a vacant third base and won a foot race to end up with a Little League triple. Puig was stranded, however, as Chase Utley grounded out.
Davies didn’t allow another baserunner until Utley and Austin Barnes combined for back-to-back singles with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Davies fired seven shutout innings, besting the six scoreless innings he threw against the Dodgers in June.
Pressed into spot duty, Ross Stripling did his part in what was a bullpen game for the Dodgers. He struck out five over three shutout innings, allowed one hit and issued one walk. Stripling threw 49 pitches, which was around the target Dodgers manager Dave Roberts set for the righty.
Edward Paredes worked around a base hit and passed ball in the fourth inning, but Josh Ravin was unable to preserve the scoreless tie in the fifth. He promptly allowed a leadoff single, followed by a home run to Orlando Arcia.
Puig kept the Dodgers within two runs by making a running catch in the sixth inning to rob Domingo Santana of a home run at the short wall in right field. Puig played the field in the seventh and flied out to end the bottom half of the inning before being removed.
Luis Avilan allowed an RBI double in the eighth inning that extended the Brewers’ lead, which Anthony Swarzak and Corey Knebel protected despite each allowing the leadoff man to reach in their respective inning of work.
The shutout loss was the Dodgers’ second in their past four games. They’d previously scored at least one run in 46 consecutive games.
