Since making his Major League debut on August 28 of 2020, 26-year-old Dodgers right-hander Mitch White has logged a lot of frequent flier miles (or frequent traveler miles with COVID-19 being what it is) between the Dodgers alternate training site at USC, Triple-A Oklahoma City, and Dodger Stadium; or wherever the team happened to be playing at the time. In fact, prior to his most recent call-up on August 12, 2021, the San Jose, CA native and Dodgers’ second-round draft pick in 2016 out of Santa Clara University had been called up and sent back down five previous times and had been used in a variety of roles, such as ‘opener,’ ‘starter,’ ‘short reliever,’ and ‘long reliever’ in the 18 games in which he had appeared over his brief two-year MLB career.

…had been.

Although the 6′-3″ / 210-pound right-hander entered Wednesday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Dodger Stadium in the second inning (with 24-year-old right-hander Justin Bruihl having opened the pre-determined ‘bullpen game’), by every indication, White is now officially (so to speak) the Dodgers number-four arm in their injury-riddled starting rotation.

All White did in front of a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,140 (their 37th sellout of the season) on Wednesday night was toss 7.1 scoreless innings of two-hit baseball, with both hits being harmless singles by Pirates first baseman Colin Moran, while walking two and striking out six on 91 pitches (58 strikes) in the Dodgers 9-0 pounding of the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete a three-game sweep of the NL Central last-place Bucs.

“He was fantastic. This is something he’s going to remember for a long time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of White’s brilliant outing. “We needed a big performance out of him, and he gave us that and plenty more.”

“I’ve just been working on being efficient, and doing my best with that, just attacking guys and not walking,” White said after his dominant performance. “Get a little swing and miss with the curveball, then go from there.”

Asked if he has pitched a better game in his brief Major League career, White answered with what we all pretty much knew.

“Major League Career? No,” he answered with a big smile.

Of course, no pitcher – no matter how good – can be successful without run support from his teammates, and White received a lot of run support on Wednesday … like nine runs on nine hits that included two home runs by Dodgers first baseman / third baseman Max Muncy and one by left fielder AJ Pollock.

For the remainder of the game (and probably the remainder of the season), every time the Midland, TX native and fifth-round draft pick in 2012 by the Oakland A’s out of Baylor University stepped to the plate, it was to loud chants of “M-V-P … M-V-P … M-V-P.”

“That’s probably one of the cooler moments I’ve had in my career,” Muncy told reporters postgame. “I had to hold back a smile when I was in the batter’s box, but the most important thing to me is winning, getting this team back to the playoffs, and helping us win another World Series. If any awards come from that, that’s awesome. But whatever I can to help the team win, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Sounds kind of MVP-ish, doesn’t it?

With the Dodgers win and earlier 6-2 loss by the Giants to the New York Mets at Oracle Park in San Francisco, the Dodgers now trail ‘The Hated Ones’ by 3.0 games in the NL West, with both teams having 41 games remaining in the 2021 regular season. The two teams will square off against each other for the final time this season for a three-game series at Oracle Park September 3-5.

Play Ball!

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