by Rowan Kavner
As the Dodgers’ starting pitchers hold opponents at bay, they received some cushion with a Max Muncy hit into an actual bay.
Muncy made the Giants “get it out of the ocean” once again Saturday in San Francisco, giving Walker Buehler an early lead on a 423-foot home run. Buehler would take it from there, allowing one run in seven innings to guide the Dodgers to their 10th win in their last 11 games.
Saturday’s 6–3 win was the third straight start Buehler worked at least seven innings. Whether he’s striking out 10 batters — as he did April 27 — or five the way he did Saturday night, he has given the Dodgers at least six innings of work in all nine of his starts this season.
“It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do better, is go deeper into games,” Buehler said.
That has been a common trait for all four Dodger starters as they continue to navigate without a fifth man in the rotation after Dustin May’s season-ending injury. Saturday was the Dodgers’ 28th quality start of the year, which leads the Majors. It was also the 10th time this year a Dodger pitcher has gone at least seven innings while allowing one or no runs, which is also the most in the Majors.
Since May 15, including the bullpen games, Dodger starters have allowed four earned runs over 43 2/3 innings. Between Trevor Bauer on Friday and Buehler on Saturday, Dodger starters began this weekend’s division series with one earned run allowed over their 13 1/3 innings.
“What they’ve done has just been incredible,” Muncy said. “Every night we go out there, we’re in a great position to win a ballgame. It’s all because of those guys. They’ve been pitching lights out for us. We’re going to expect them to pitch lights out going forward, but hopefully we can start having some games where we put up a lot more runs, take off a little stress from those guys.”
Muncy continues to guide the way offensively during the Dodgers’ latest upswing, raising his OPS to a team-best .982 in the process. He has six homers in May and now ranks fourth in the Major Leagues in FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement (2.4). He’s not sure why he keeps finding the water at Oracle Park, but he’s not going to complain.
“It’s just one of those things that’s pretty cool in baseball,” Muncy said. “When it comes to seeing where a ball goes, there’s not many ballparks out there that there’s a cool thing to hit it at.”
During the Dodgers’ six-game winning streak, they’ve scored more than four runs on two occasions. Saturday was one of them.
Austin Barnes hit his first homer since Game 3 of the World Series, while DJ Peters recorded his first multi-hit game as a Major Leaguer. A Gavin Lux single, Matt Beaty double and Peters single in the seventh increased the Dodger lead to 4–0.
The Giants would strike for a run against Buehler in the bottom of the inning, but Buehler finished his final frame with back-to-back strikeouts to avoid further damage. Alex Vesia allowed two runs in the eighth inning before Kenley Jansen, who hasn’t allowed an earned run in May, finished off the win with his 11th save of the year.
“We’ve just started playing like ourselves, more than anything,” Buehler said. “Also, we got a couple new faces in here. I think sometimes that can kind of reenergize you a little bit, especially when they’re players of that kind of caliber. I think everyone wants to show what they’ve got a little bit.”
One of those new faces, Albert Pujols, continued bringing smiles to the Dodgers’ faces with an eighth-inning RBI single. When his night was over, he spread joy to more than his teammates, giving a bat to a kid near the dugout.
“Not surprising,” said manager Dave Roberts. “People look up to guys like Albert. For him to reciprocate that and make a young fan’s day, year, whatever it is, it’s a treasure I’m sure that person is going to have for a long time.”
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Max Muncy goes deep for a splash, Walker Buehler pitches deep for a win - mlblogs.com
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