CHICAGO — Last weekend as the Dodgers were splitting a two-game series with the Angels, Manager Dave Roberts said he thought his team was poised to get on a roll heading into the All-Star break.
If that’s the case, teams like the Chicago White Sox could be the wind beneath their wings. In their last 24 games before this year’s break (on July 15), the Dodgers play just six games against teams with winning records (three each against the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies) while playing seven against the two teams with the worst records in baseball (the White Sox and Colorado Rockies).
They accepted the gift this week, completing a three-game sweep of the lifeless White Sox with a complete game, four-hit shutout by Gavin Stone in a 4-0 victory on Wednesday night.
It was the Dodgers’ first complete game from a pitcher since Walker Buehler did it against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 25, 2022.
Stone found the Windy City team a real breeze. He retired 13 of the first 14 batters, needed just 56 pitches to get through the first five innings and retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced.
It was the first time in 19 career starts that Stone pitched into the eighth inning, but it was the fifth time in his past 11 starts that he has completed at least seven.
The Dodgers have won 10 of those 11 starts and Stone has an ERA of 1.90 in that stretch while holding batters to a .204 average. His ERA for the season dropped to 2.73 – fifth in the National League (ahead of Dodgers teammate Tyler Glasnow).
The Dodgers were supposed to have a Rookie of the Year candidate in their rotation this year – and they do even with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the injured list.
“He’s had an All-Star first half,” Roberts agreed before Wednesday’s game. “I haven’t put his numbers and compared notes on other players in the National League. But it’d be hard-pressed to see innings, earned runs, all the other kind of underlying stuff – I’m sure he’s right up there.
“It would be great to see him make the All-Star team. That would be a great story.”
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Shohei Ohtani is a lock to be in Texas for this year’s midseason exhibition. He continued his tear with another leadoff home run Wednesday – his second in as many days and third since moving into the leadoff spot nine games ago after Mookie Betts suffered a fractured hand.
This modest 437-foot drive was Ohtani’s 25th home run of the season, the eighth in his past 10 games and fifth in the past six. It also extended his streak to 10 consecutive games with an RBI, setting a new franchise record.
The Dodgers added three runs in the third inning, two on a double by Freddie Freeman who has been enjoying his own June heat wave – a .333 batting average (28 for 84) with six doubles, six home runs, 17 RBIs and 19 runs scored.
Teoscar Hernandez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and the Dodgers put the game away in the fourth inning without scoring. Miguel Rojas doubled – they are now 24-0 in games when Rojas has a base hit.
More to come on this story.