Seager, Beaty break the weekend power drought, moving magic number to two
by Rowan Kavner
History suggested the Dodgers’ power, which lay dormant outside of A.J. Pollock’s trio of deep blasts, would eventually awaken. One day after getting shut out by the Giants, the Dodgers returned the favor.
Matt Beaty and Corey Seager tacked on two home runs to the Dodgers’ all-time National League-leading total Sunday afternoon, and that was all the club would need after six Dodger pitchers combined to keep the Giants scoreless in a 5–0 win.
The offense was just as much about patience and hustle as it was about power in a win that increased the Dodgers’ home record to 56–20 — their best home winning percentage in Los Angeles history (.736).
For three innings, the bats still hadn’t woken up against Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez. But with two outs in the fourth inning, Cody Bellinger drew a walk. That allowed Beaty to come to the plate and turn the first Dodger hit of the game into the first runs of the game with a two-run shot. Beaty is one homer shy of becoming the 12th Dodger player to reach double digits in the category this season.
“We haven’t been putting hits together,” said manager Dave Roberts. “And so with two outs to get a walk, put a crooked number on the board and get a lead, that was a good thing.”
An inning later, Joc Pederson grounded a two-out pitch to second base. That could’ve ended the inning, but he booked it down the line and reached first in time to beat the throw from Mauricio Dubon, who was charged with an error. One batter later, Seager’s three-run homer broke the game open.
“The big blow by Corey late was huge,” Roberts said.
By then, starter Julio Urías was out of the game.
The lefty was only expected to go a few innings, and it ended up being two after allowing three hits. Urías kept the Giants off the board and will move to the bullpen for the Dodgers’ upcoming series in Baltimore.
Kenta Maeda followed and was pristine in four innings, allowing just one hit with six strikeouts. In his shift to the bullpen, the performance was a marked improvement from his last relief outing on Monday, when he allowed three runs in four innings.
“On the pitching side, the story was Kenta,” Roberts said. “Kenta was really good today. The slider, the fastball, just kind of on the attack all day long. To log four innings put us in a really good spot to win a baseball game.”
Roberts said he believes Maeda pitches like he can “let the tank out” when he comes out of the bullpen, knowing he won’t need to pace himself for 90 to 100 pitches like he would as a starter. His aggressiveness from the start was obvious to both Roberts and Maeda’s catcher, Russell Martin.
“With two strikes, he wasn’t relying on the slider as much,” Martin said. “In division, the guys have many at-bats against him. They kind of know, they’ve seen the slider, guys tend to sit on it.”
The slider was still on point, though, getting six swinging strikes and three called strikes.
The rest of the relievers picked up where Maeda left off, as Casey Sadler, Yimi García, Adam Kolarek and Josh Sborz combined to hold the the Giants without a hit for the final three innings to prevent a sweep. The Dodger bullpen allowed just two earned runs in 17 innings during the series, including 16 straight scoreless frames.
They’ll try to take that momentum to Baltimore, where the Dodgers will have a chance to clinch the division. The magic number is at two as they hit the road with an off day Monday.
