PITTSBURGH _ For the first time since April 24, the Dodgers do not own a losing record. With a 5-0 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday at PNC Park, the team pulled back to .500, with 30 victories and 30 defeats. Winners of their past four games, the upward trend continues.
The offense grew from home runs by Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger. Ross Stripling lasted only five innings, but kept the Pirates scoreless and struck out seven.
A storm delayed the game for 53 minutes. The sun was still shining over PNC Park at first pitch. Pirates starter Joe Musgrove brushed aside the top of the Dodgers batting order by striking out the side in the first. Stripling climbed atop the mound looking to extend an exemplary stretch of baseball from May into June.
After Clayton Kershaw suffered biceps tendinitis in early May, Stripling joined the rotation. He made five starts in May. He gave up four runs and struck out 40 batters in 29 innings. He produced three groundouts to start the game.
When Stripling returned for the second inning, his team lead by two runs. Matt Kemp led off with a single in the top of the second. Pederson turned on a thigh-high cutter from Musgrove and lined a two-run shot over the right-field fence. After homering once in his first 53 games, Pederson has gone deep three times in his last three games.
A gaffe in the field led to another run in the third. The Dodgers pressured Musgrove with singles by Chris Taylor and Max Muncy. Musgrove tried to pick off Taylor at second base; the two runners moved up 90 feet when Pirates shortstop Sean Rodriguez dropped the throw. Taylor scored on a sacrifice fly from Kemp.
Stripling faced the minimum through three innings. Yasmani Grandal erased a second-inning single by Pirates outfielder Corey Dickerson by throwing Dickerson out on a steal attempt at second base. Stripling struck out the side in the third, finishing all three at-bats with fastballs.
The Dodgers added a fourth run in the fourth inning. Puig hammered a 1-2 fastball from Musgrove to left center. It was Puig's seventh homer of the season. All of them have come since May 13.
Stripling fell into trouble in the fifth. Dickerson singled again. A double-play attempt fizzled when Taylor dropped a feed from Cody Bellinger. With two runners on and none out, Stripling fanned outfielder Gregory Polanco with a 3-2, 93-mph fastball. Rodriguez popped up. One out from escape, Stripling gave up a pinch-hit single to Pittsburgh outfielder Starling Marte to load the bases.
The hit turned over Pittsburgh's lineup. Stripling faced off with Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison for the third time. Harrison had grounded out in his first at-bat and struck out in his second. Now Stripling ripped a curveball on the inner half of the plate. Harrison hit a harmless fly into Kemp's glove to finish the inning. The stress of the inning still forced Stripling from the game.
The lead expanded to five in the sixth. Bellinger might as well have been encased in ice when he came to the plate. He had three hits in his previous 31 at-bats. He still remembered what to do with a 3-1 fastball down the middle. Pirates reliever Tyler Glasnow tested Bellinger with 97-mph heat. Bellinger redirected the baseball into the manicured law in center field.
