The Los Angeles Dodgers put the finishing touches on a successful regular season by shutting out the L.A. Angels, 5-0, in an afternoon affair at Dodger Stadium. With that, the Dodgers won all six Freeway Series meetings this year.
They took a decided lead on AJ Pollock’s leadoff home run in the first inning and added to it in the third behind Corey Seager’s groundout and Justin Turner’s pop-up getting lost in the sun and falling between three Angels. Pollock then hit his second homer of the day in the seventh.
That was his 10th in September, which set a new career high for most in a calendar month — surpassing the nine Pollock hit in March/April of the 2018 season. Pollock additionally gave the Dodgers an MLB-best three players with at least 15 home runs this season.
The early runs held in another bullpen game for the Dodgers, who went with Victor Gonzalez in the role of opener. The young left-hander retired the side in order in the first inning but was removed after allowing a leadoff single in the second.
Dustin May benefitted from a stolen base and he retired both batters faced in the second. He then worked around a one-out single in the third, and after starting the fourth with a walk, struck out the next three batters faced. A double play wiped out a leadoff walk in the fifth inning and May then stranded a base hit.
He allowed just two hits and also issued a pair of walks, but collected five strikeouts over four innings. May finished the 2020 season with a 2.57 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 56 innings pitched across 12 games (10 starts).
Pedro Baez, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol and Kenley Jansen each threw a scoreless inning out of the bullpen to finish off the shut out. It was particularly encouraging for Treinen, who struggled of late and will undoubtedly be relied upon during leverage situations in the postseason.
Although Adam Kolarek did not get off the mound, he did enter the game in the eighth to play an inning out in right field. It marked his debut at the position, though Kolarek has appeared in three games at first base.
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