Eric Lauer held his own against Paul Skenes into the sixth inning, then the Dodgers broke loose against Not Paul Skenes in a 12-3 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at PNC Park.
A tie game entering the seventh inning quickly became untied as Pirates reliever Wilber Dotel allowed five hits and a walk to his six batters faced, and all of them scored. Andy Pages hit a two-run home run to break things open.
It took 10 Dodgers to bat
in the seventh before the Pirates bullpen recorded its first out. And they weren’t done yet. Two games after a nine-run inning against the Angels that was the Dodgers’ best in five years, they scored 10 runs in the seventh inning on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
The 10th run of the frame was driven home on a single by Freddie Freeman, the 2,500th hit of his illustrious career.
Keeping the flow
PNC Park stands at the confluence of three rivers in Pittsburgh, so perhaps adding a fourth River into the mix might represent a Roberto Clemente Bridge too far. So while River Ryan is in Charlotte and set to start on Wednesday for Triple-A Oklahoma City, Lauer remains in the rotation, and thus far has basically done exactly what was asked of him when the Dodgers acquired the left-hander from the Toronto Blue Jays on May 17.
Lauer allowed a pair of two-out home runs in the first inning, which is going to happen sometimes considering the left-hander has the third-highest home runs per nine innings (2.56) among major league pitchers with at least 40 innings. But after the home runs, Lauer retired 15 of his final 16 batters faced, leaving in a 2-2 tie after 5 2/3 innings, with five strikeouts and no walks.
What was an uphill battle facing Skenes was smoothed out a bit by Lauer pitching as deep as he did, and the Dodgers giving themselves several chances against the Pirates ace.
In five starts against Skenes, the Dodgers have 25 total hits (in 112 at-bats), but 13 are for extra-bases. Mookie Betts got one of those with a double to lead off the second inning, and scored the first run for Los Angeles. Max Muncy doubled with one out in the fourth, but Skenes struck out Kyle Tucker and Ryan Ward to end that threat.
But the Dodgers kept threatening against Skenes, reaching base in every inning from the second through the sixth, including a one-out double in the sixth by Freeman, his 2,499th career hit. One out later, Max Muncy grounded a ball that took a hop past second baseman Brandon Lowe for his third hit of the game, scoring Freeman with the equalizer.
As good as Skenes has been this season — a 3.08 ERA, 2.29 xERA — the Pirates have managed to lose eight of his 14 starts, despite having a winning record (34-33) overall. Seeing the bullpen makes that more understandable.
Two sides of aggression
Dalton Rushing walked to open the fifth, but his slide into second base on a grounder might have been acceptable 50 years ago, well off the bag and into Pirates shortstop Jared Triolo. Instead, he was rightfully called for interference, turning a forceout into a double play, neutering a potential scoring opportunity.
Rushing channeled that aggression more productively in the seventh inning, with a single and going from first base to third on a single to left center. Then on a pickoff throw by catcher Henry Davis, Rushing went back into the bag standing up, remaining in the way of third baseman Nick Gonzalez. The throw hit Rushing and caromed into foul territory, allowing him to easily score the go-ahead run.
That run seemed important at the time, but got washed away under the avalanche of runs during the frame.
Tuesday particulars
Home runs: Andy Pages (15); Bryan Reynolds (7), Ryan O’Hearn (10)
WP — Will Klein (2-2): 1 1/3 IP, 3 strikeouts
LP — Wilber Dotel (1-1): 0 IP, 5 hits, 6 runs (5 earned), 1 walk
Up next
The Dodgers and Pirates are back at it on Wednesday (3:40 p.m. PT; SportsNet LA, MLB Network), with Shohei Ohtani on the mound for the middle game of the series, and Jared Jones pitching for the Pirates in his third start back from the injured list. Weather permitting, of course.
