Pirates run wild with 6 stolen bases in rout of Dodgers
PITTSBURGH — The Dodgers need to get tough on crime.
The Pittsburgh Pirates stole six bases Wednesday night, running at will in an 8-1 rout of the Dodgers that snapped the Dodgers’ three-game winning streak.
The Pirates have plundered away, stealing nine bases in nine attempts over the first two games of this series. But the crime wave goes beyond that. The Dodgers have surrendered an MLB-high 35 stolen bases in 40 attempts over the first 25 games of the season.
“It hasn’t been good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game of the Dodgers’ inability to control the running game. “We’ve got to figure something out. I might have to do a better job of calling pitch-outs. I don’t know if that will help in certain situations. We’ve got to try to keep these guys off base, these burners. But they’re gonna keep trying us. I know that. Our pitchers know that. Our catchers know that. So we all gotta get better.”
Tony Gonsolin held the Pirates scoreless into the fourth inning in his season debut, allowing two hits and walking three before being pulled after 3⅓ innings and 65 pitches.
“I threw way too many balls today,” said Gonsolin, who had 26 of those to 14 batters. “Not throwing many effective pitches and fell behind in a lot of counts.”
The Pirates got in the starting blocks against reliever Phil Bickford. They used small ball (including a stolen base and a sacrifice bunt) to set up back-to-back RBI singles by Bryan Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen in the fifth inning. Three straight hits – with another stolen base thrown in – resulted in another run in the sixth.
They broke the game open with five runs in the seventh inning, scoring one run when Tucupita Marcano raced home from second base on an infield single. Dodgers catcher Austin Wynns was called for blocking the plate on that play, allowing Marcano to score.
A double steal with Wynns one-hopping the throw to third baseman Michael Busch, who wasn’t even covering the base, set up a two-run double by Jason Delay.
“When you’re putting guys on base by way of walk or base hits or whatever it might be, they’re gonna try to expose us. Right now I don’t know the answer,” Roberts said after the latest round of thievery was done. “The best answer is to try to keep them off first base, but once they get there, they’re taking advantage of us. So I think it’s a combo of the pitchers at times and also I think that the catchers can be guilty at times as well.
“I wish it was a quick fix.”
The Dodgers have another glaring problem in need of repair. The four relievers that followed Gonsolin each gave up runs and the bullpen’s collective ERA rose to 5.32. Only three teams – the Kansas City Royals, Oakland A’s and Chicago White Sox – have been worse. That is not company the Dodgers want to keep.
“Well, I think there’s a lot of factors,” Roberts said. “We’re not doing a good job of getting ahead. The walk is in play – getting into bad counts, not being able to put guys away when we do get leverage counts. Outside of a few guys, they’re all kind of in that category.
“The consistency of these guys hasn’t been there, for the most part. … You look at the track record and the track records are pretty good. So I’m going to keep running them out there and expecting good things when they go out there until ultimately something changes.”
The Dodgers’ offense has not taken advantage of the new rules aiding and abetting a rise in stolen bases across the league this year. They did little else Wednesday night either.
Pirates starter Roansy Contreras walked two in the first five innings but didn’t give up a hit until Wynns led off the sixth with a single.
“I think just the fact that he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes, fastball and slider. To me, that’s the name of it,” Dodgers outfielder Jason Heyward said. “Because if you can only throw one for a strike, it’s going to be kind of easy to sit on it and get some good swings off. He made pitches when he needed to.”
The Dodgers’ only run came on a solo home run by Freddie Freeman in the eighth inning.
Tuesday night’s comeback win was the eighth time this season the Dodgers have scored eight or more runs in a game. But they have suffered a hangover in the overserved aftermath, losing six of the eight games that followed those breakouts and scoring a total of just 23 runs in those games.