You know the old saying:

“Any team can beat any other team on any given day.”

That team was the National League Central last place Pittsburgh Pirates, and that given day was Friday, April 25, in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 53,655.

To make matters worse, the (now) 11-16 Pirates shut out the (now) 16-10 Dodgers 3-0, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team collected only six hits. To make matters even worse, the Dodgers stranded seven runners on base and went a dismal 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“I like his swing, certainly the results have been good the last handful of games, seven games, something like that,” Roberts told reporters postgame of Pages’ impressive night at the plate. “The swing’s gotten a lot shorter, he’s just really competing, I think the confidence is certainly growing, and it’s good to see,” added the Dodgers skipper.

And then there’s 26-year-old Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had an uncharacteristic bad night on the mound in his MLB-leading sixth start of the season.

“Early in the game I was falling behind in the count and then I couldn’t establish my rhythm,” Yamamoto told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson postgame through an interpreter. “As the game moved on, like the second, third inning, I did start feeling my stuff was becoming better, however, I couldn’t grind it through, I couldn’t get myself out of trouble.”

With the loss, Yamamoto is now 3-2 on the season, but still has a National League-best 1.06 ERA through his combined 34.0 innings pitched thus far, so there’s that.

The Dodgers will begin play on Saturday against those same Pirates in third place in the NL West a full game behind the division-leading San Diego Padres and a half game behind the second-place Hated Ones:

Play Ball!

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