When 32-year-old Dodgers future Hall of Fame first baseman Freddie Freeman ripped a line drive single into the right-center field gap to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning with his team trailing the NL Central third-place Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 5-3, he was thinking two right out of the box, knowing that it would take an absolutely perfect throw from Pirates right fielder Jack Suwinski to nail him.

Pirates right fielder Jack Suwinski made a perfect throw and nailed Freeman for what would prove to be the last real offensive threat of the night for birthday boy Dave Roberts‘ suddenly sputtering team.

On the night, the Dodgers stranded eight runners on base and were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“We had base runners, we had traffic, but just really couldn’t finish innings,” Roberts said of his team’s second consecutive night of offensive woes. “Four hits, but, again, we had seven walks but couldn’t finish an inning.”

…or in Freeman’s case, start one.

But it also takes solid pitching to win at baseball’s highest level. Unfortunately, and for the second consecutive night, Dodgers’ starters gave up early home runs before ‘settling in nicely,’ as they say (whoever they are).

On Monday night, 27-year-old Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler gave up two early home runs (for four Pirates runs) before ‘settling in nicely.’ And on Tuesday night, Dodgers left-hander Julio Urías also gave up two home runs (for five Pirates runs) before settling in.

“It was just two pitches, you know, two pitches they got ahold of, good pitches they connected on, but I had my mind set and focused the whole time,” Urías said postgame through an interpreter. “I was trying to make adjustments throughout the whole game, but those two pitches really hurt me.”

Yes, they did.

Ironically, of those four combined home runs allowed by Buehler and Urías, two were by just-called-up Pirates left fielder Tucupita Marcano – the first two home runs of his major league career.

The silver lining to all of this is that the NL West second-place San Diego Padres have also lost their last two games to remain 3.0 games behind the Dodgers in the division … so there’s that.

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *