The Los Angeles Dodgers got their first look at AJ Pollock since trading him during Spring Training, and the veteran outfielder helped lift the Chicago White Sox to a 4-0 win. The Dodgers dropping the opener of the road trip extended their losing streak to three games.
Mitch White and Michael Kopech combined for a pitchers’ duel, though neither was still on the mound past the sixth inning.
White was efficient and didn’t allow a baserunner through four innings. Up to that point Gavin Lux’s walk with two outs in the third inning and Will Smith’s single in the fourth were the only baserunners in the game.
Lux was stranded and so was Smith, who had been balked into scoring position.
Meanwhile, White lost his perfect game on José Abreu’s leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth. That wound up leading to some trouble as hit batter and another single loaded the bases with one out.
White wiggled out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts, giving him five in the game and keeping it locked in a scoreless tie. The outing — easily White’s best of the season — came amid news of Clayton Kershaw likely returning on Sunday.
Kopech held the Dodgers to just one hit and one walk while collecting eight strikeouts over six innings.
L.A. had at least one runner reach in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, only for the potential rally twice to be cut short because of a double play.
Pollock, White Sox rock Price
Phil Bickford was first to appear out of the Dodgers’ bullpen but he was removed with two on and two outs in the sixth inning. The White Sox countered David Price coming into the game by using Pollock to pinch-hit for Gavin Sheets.
He sent Price’s first pitch down the right-field line for a two-run double that started a string of hits. Jake Burger followed with an RBI double and Reese McGuire drove in a run on his base hit. The Dodgers fell into a 4-0 deficit in a matter of four pitches by Price.
Justin Turner reaches 1,000 hits
While it came in a losing effort, Justin Turner’s infield single in the seventh inning gave him 1,000 career hits with the Dodgers. Turner became the 35th player in Dodgers franchise history to reach the milestone.
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