Needing hit, they get a shot in arm
L.A. breaks up no-hitter in sixth, then Pollock delivers late hits and the lead to back May’s strong start.
The Dodgers entered the sixth inning Tuesday without a hit. By the end of the seventh, they had overturned a two-run deficit.
Behind a two-run single from Corey Seager and two RBIs from AJ Pollock — the team’s hottest hitters coming through in the clutch again — the Dodgers evened their series against the upstart San Diego Padres with a 5-2 win at Petco Park.
Pollock delivered the winning hit, poking a seventh-inning double the other way after entering the game as a pinch-hitter.
“I really wanted to just stay short and try not to hit it at [the first baseman],” Pollock said on a videoconference. “It worked out. I got a pitch to handle … Sometimes it’s tough when you don’t get those calls. Sometimes you let it affect your game. And sometimes you do a better job.”
Pollock, who also homered in the ninth to raise his batting average to a team-best .364, said he got only one hour of sleep Monday night after his wife and newborn daughter joined him in San Diego, making Tuesday’s exploits his latest example of balancing life on and off the field.
“As an organization, when you commit to a player and give them a deal for four years, you’ve got to bet on the skillset and also the makeup,” manager Dave Roberts said of Pollock, who is in the second season of a $55-million contract. “AJ’s obviously had a lot of things happen in his life … but he’s found a way to still stay consistent with his work and preparation.”
Before Pollock put the Dodgers in front, it looked like they might waste Dustin May's best start so far this season. With an electric sinker-cutter mix, the rookie righthander allowed only two runs and three hits over six innings while striking out a career-high eight — including Manny Machado on a wicked two-seamer in the first.
“I couldn’t imagine a better pitch on the filth meter,” Roberts said.
May’s take: “I grip it and rip it … I just let the grip do the work.”
However, the Padres’ own hardthrowing right-hander, Dinelson Lamet, was a notch better early on. The 28-year-old needed just 46 pitches to record his first 14 outs and had a no-hitter intact with two outs in the sixth.
But then Lamet plunked Justin Turner on the arm with a two-out, first-pitch sinker to make Turner the club’s all-time leader in being hit by pitches. Turner looked irked as he walked to first and Roberts said afterward he wasn’t convinced the throw wasn’t intentional.
Nonetheless, it gave the Dodgers an opening. Cody Bellinger broke up the no-no in the next atbat, squibbing a single through the middle of the infield.
Seager worked a nine-pitch battle after that, fouling off a tough two-strike slider and laying off two others to make the count full.
Finally, Seager squared up a low sinker — “a good pitcher’s pitch,” Roberts said — into left-center field. Turner scored easily and Bellinger was waved around third after center fielder Trent Grisham bobbled the ball. A relay throw arrived home in time, but catcher Francisco Mejía dropped the ball on the tag, with Bellinger tying the game.
Harris reported from Los Angeles.