Remember that laugher of a game back on Friday night when the Dodgers pummeled the Texas Rangers by a score of 12-1? You know, the one where they gave future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw a six-run lead in the bottom of the first inning before the seats were even warm at Dodger Stadium?

Well, so did the Texas Rangers.

Although it took all nine innings, those same Texas Rangers pummeled the Dodgers on Saturday night by a score of (wait for it…) 12-1.

It got so bad that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts threw in the towel early by refusing to burn up his bullpen and actually used newcomer Andy Burns, a utility infielder who had joined the team only hours earlier, to pitch the top of the ninth. (Note: It did not go well, but it was fun to watch).

Whereas the Dodgers had accumulated 16 hits on Friday night (including a season-high five home runs), on Saturday night, they, as the great Tommy Lasorda once famously said, “…couldn’t hit water if (they) fell out of a boat;” tallying only six hits on the night behind the less-than-stellar pitching of 30-year-old right-hander Trevor Bauer. Bauer, in fact, allowed six of those 12 runs (four earned) on nine hits, including a demoralizing two-run home run after a Mookie Betts error in center field. He did, however, strike out eight in his 6.1 innings pitched, so there’s that.

“As the season goes along, you’re going to have outings like this; things aren’t always going to go your way,” Bauer told reporters postgame. “As a competitor, you have to find a way to get around it and continue to be successful and give your team a chance to win. I just didn’t do a good enough job of that tonight.”

An accurate assessment.

But if there is one thing you can say about the defending 2020 National League Cy Young Award winner, whom the Dodgers signed to a lofty three-year / $102 million free-agent contract on February 5, 2021, it’s that he never makes excuses and owns up to his shortcomings.

“I gotta land my curveball,” Bauer admitted. “I just need to be better about that.”

Also an accurate assessment.

As for the 30-year-old Burns, who had previously appeared in a grand total of 10 major league games for the Toronto Blue Jays after being drafted by them in the 11th round in 2011 out of the University of Arizona and acquired by the Dodgers this past February, he was, as Roberts put it, “…the highlight of the night,” – of which there were painfully few.

In the bottom of the second inning and in his first at-bat as a Dodger, Burns singled off the glove of Rangers shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa for his first career major league hit. He then walked in the fourth inning, lined out sharply to first base in the seventh, and then grounded out to second base in the ninth.

But the big story is that with the Dodgers already down 10-1 heading into the top of the ninth, Roberts called upon Burns, who had played the previous eight innings as the Dodgers second baseman, to pitch; something that he had never done before in a major league game.

“I was hoping he could get through that one inning and throw up a quick and efficient ninth inning,” Roberts said. “It just wasn’t to be. We haven’t thrown him more than 30 pitches or something like that (in the minors), and it was one-plus, so I just felt at that point in time the game was out of hand and I didn’t want to put him in harm’s way.

“As I made the mound visit, there was little comedic stuff just to kind of defuse the moment and get him ready. I sort of ambushed him but he stepped up for us. I figured he had a right arm and could throw it over the plate. I just asked him if he was ready to make history, and he said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Although Burns didn’t exactly “…throw up a quick and efficient ninth inning,” having allowed two runs on three hits (including a two-run home run), he did not allow a walk and even struck out a batter. In other words, he recorded his first strikeout before striking out himself.

…and you gotta love that.

Play Ball!

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