The Dodgers had a quite a day. They learned all about Ro Day, found out that the bottom of the Pirates’ order can be very annoying, and watched the Pirates run wild on the bases. And they lost to the Pirates, 8-1.
Roansy Contreras held LA hitless until Austin Wynns led off the sixth with a single. After Contreras fanned Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman singled to put two on, but Contreras got the next two batters to fly out.
The only other Dodger threat came an inning earlier, on a walk and a one-out steal. Contreras ended it by striking out last night’s villain, Chris Taylor, and getting a fly out.
Contreras left after six shutout innings, having thrown 87 pitches. He gave up the two hits and two walks, and fanned five.
The Pirates didn’t get off to a much better start against Tony Gonsolin, who was making his season debut. They didn’t get a hit until Jason Delay singled with one out in the third. Ke’Bryan Hayes walked, but newly minted rich guy Bryan Reynolds grounded into a double play.
Another chance went by the boards in the fourth. A double steal by Jack Suwinski and mysterious speedster Carlos Santana put runners on second and third with two outs, but Rodolfo Castro couldn’t come through.
Finally, in the fifth, the Bucs got runners to the corners with one out on a Ji-Hwan Bae single, a steal, a sacrifice and another walk to Hayes. This time Reynolds drilled a single to center. Then Andrew McCutchen, who’s been bedeviled all season by hard-hit outs, dumped a bloop into shallow right for a second run.
In the sixth, Castro got a double on a one-out bloop, took third on another single by Bae, and scored when Delay singled off the pitcher’s glove.
The Pirates added on — always a good idea against an explosive team like the Dodgers — in the seventh. They loaded the bases with one out, but Connor Joe, who’s suddenly having an extremely difficult time, hit into a force at the plate. Castro, though, singled to drive in two. Bae followed that with another hit, but Tucupita Marcano was thrown out at the plate. Except, no, catcher Austin Wynns, who was already 0-for-4 against Pirate base stealers, got called after replay for blocking the plate. Then Delay lined one right on the chalk down the left field line for a two-run double. (Rob Manfred is probably right now trying to dream up rules to prevent low-revenue teams from getting “lucky” hits.)
The Pirates had gone with Robert Stephenson for the top of the seventh, but the big bottom half probably changed the rest of the pitching plans. Dauri Moreta made his first appearance in ages in the eighth and gave up a two-out bomb to Freeman. But he bounced back to strike out the Dodgers’ last four batters.
The bottom three in the Pirates’ order — Castro, Bae and Delay — combined for eight hits, four runs, four of the Pirates’ six steals, and six RBIs. Delay was 3-for-3 with three RBIs and is now batting .368. Bae had three steals.
And Drew Maggi made his major league debut, batting for Cutch in the ninth. It could have gone better. He got called for a clock violation and then chased a bad one for a strikeout.
