LOS ANGELES — The road to a division title will not be paved with Pittsburgh Pirates. If it were, the Dodgers would be shoo-ins.
Max Muncy drove in five runs with two home runs and Mitch White took the “bullpen” out of a bullpen game, throwing 7-1/3 scoreless innings in the best game of his young career as the Dodgers cruised to a 9-0 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday night.
That completed a three-game sweep of the Pirates and allowed the Dodgers to gain a game in the standings, moving within three games of the San Francisco Giants for the first time since Aug. 1.
The win put the final punctuation on another season sweep of the Pirates who have not beaten the Dodgers since June 2018. The Dodgers’ 16-game win streak over the Pirates matches their longest over a single opponent since moving to Los Angeles. (They also beat the San Diego Padres 16 consecutive times in 1973 and 1974.)
The Dodgers have been pretty good about picking up money they find lying on the sidewalk. They are 45-17 against teams currently sporting losing records including 22-7 against the four last-place teams they have faced (the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, Texas Rangers and Pirates).
“It’s very important,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of winning games you’re supposed to win. “That’s what makes a Major League Baseball season so unique. You play 162 and it’s a grind. Not letting down against lesser opponents or whatever you want to call it, it’s important.
“We’ve just gotta keep winning, whoever we’re playing.”
There will be few freebies the rest of the way.
Of the Dodgers’ final nine opponents over the remaining 41 games, only two have losing records – they play the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks twice each. Those nine remaining opponents went into Wednesday’s game with a combined winning percentage of .519.
Justin Bruihl started – opened – two of the three games against the Pirates as the Dodgers used the downtrodden Bucs as a rest stop. Julio Urias went to the Injured List for a 10-day timeout rather than make a start this week, creating the need for multiple bullpen games.
On Monday, Bruihl opened with a scoreless inning and Andre Jackson followed with four more in his major-league debut.
Bruihl got the first five outs Wednesday and White took it over from there, taking the “bullpen” out of the bullpen game. White went a career-high 7-1/3 innings, allowing just four baserunners – two singles and two walks. The Pirates never got a runner to second base against Bruihl or White who threw 91 pitches in the longest scoreless relief outing by a Dodger pitcher since Ed Roebuck threw nine scoreless innings against the Milwaukee Braves in relief of a guy named Sandy Koufax in June 1960.
“He was fantastic. This is something he’s going to remember for a very long time,” said Roberts, who had used relievers for more innings (38) than starters (35) over the eight games before Wednesday. “We needed a big performance out of him and he gave us that and plenty more. He just looked like a big-league pitcher. He was polished, in command, kept his poise, was efficient, attacked the strike zone with all his pitches.
“Just really fun to see a young pitcher be in control like he was tonight.”
Roberts also used the Pirates series to rest a different pair of regulars in each game of the series. Muncy got his break on Tuesday. He returned to hit a two-run home run in the first inning and a three-run homer in the fourth, both off Pirates starter J.T. Brubaker. It was Muncy’s second two-homer game in the past four days and he has five home runs in his past three starts and prompted chants of “M-V-P” from another sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium.“That’s probably one of the cooler moments I’ve ever had in my career,” Muncy said. “That was kind of wild. I had to hold back a smile while I was in the batter’s box.”
In between Muncy’s latest power display, Justin Turner doubled and scored on an RBI single by Corey Seager in the first and AJ Pollock hit a solo home run in the second.
Filling in as the leadoff hitter with Trea Turner and Chris Taylor both getting their downtime Wednesday, Pollock had three hits and scored three runs in the first four innings. In the midst of his best season since he made the All-Star team in 2015, Pollock is batting .372 (54 for 145) with nine home runs, 25 RBIs and 22 runs scored since the start of July.
Seager added a two-run home run in the sixth for his seventh multi-hit game in his past 12 starts. Since returning from his hand injury in late July, Seager is batting .333 (21 for 63) with seven doubles and two home runs.
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Max Muncy has another 2-homer game as Dodgers complete sweep of Pirates - OCRegister
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