LOS ANGELES _ The Los Angeles Dodgers concluded the month of May on Friday how they spent most of its first 30 days: pounding baseballs and riding a quality start to victory. In Friday's 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, it was Kenta Maeda delivering a stout six-inning performance while the offense scored its runs on four homers from four different power sources in front of an announced sellout crowd of 54,307 at Dodger Stadium _ the largest in the regular season since 2012 _ for the club's annual LGBT night.
Maeda surrendered two runs on three hits, didn't walk a batter, plunked one, and tallied six strikeouts over six innings before exiting with 88 pitches. The outing completed an exceptional month of starting pitching for the Dodgers (39-19). The group led the majors in earned-run average (2.50), WHIP (0.93), innings per start (6.36), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.41) in 26 games. They logged at least six innings in 22 games, walked more than two batters once, and allowed fewer than three runs 15 times.
The performances fueled a 19-7 month for the Dodgers, one they completed without losing consecutive games while posting four winning streaks of at least three games. They enter June with an 8{-game lead over the second-place San Diego Padres in the National League West.
The Dodgers, who were without manager Dave Roberts as he attended his son's high school graduation, loaded their lineup with six left-handed hitters _ all populating the top six spots _ with reason: Left-handed batters entered Friday performing at an all-star level against Phillies starter Jake Arrieta. While right-handed hitters were batting .230 with a .598 on-base-plus-slugging percentage against him, those in the opposite batter's box had compiled a .283 batting average and .865 OPS. Six of the nine home runs Arrieta allowed this season were against left-handed hitters. That total quickly increased Friday.
After Joc Pederson, the Dodgers' leadoff man, reached on an infield single, Max Muncy opened the scoring in the third inning by lashing a slider over the right-field fence for a two-run home run. Two innings later, Pederson smashed his 17th home run _ a 445-foot leadoff blast to the back of the right-field pavilion. Muncy followed with a single before Corey Seager launched his seventh home run.
The blows knocked Arrieta out after five innings. He gave up five runs on 10 hits, threw 97 pitches, and forced the Phillies bullpen to deal with the Dodgers' unyielding offense for four innings. Enrique Hernandez added a 432-foot moonshot in the eighth inning off Juan Nicasio to complete the Dodgers' power display.
Maeda did not break a sweat the first time through the Phillies' order. He retired the nine batters in order and punched out five of them. He threw 38 pitches, including 15 sliders, and generated 11 swing-and-misses.
His continued heavy slider usage spawned rougher waters to begin his second time through the lineup. He threw three straight sliders to Andrew McCutchen, the Phillies' leadoff hitter, to start the fourth inning. The third offering, a meaty 82-mph slider, was walloped over the wall in straightaway center field to soil the perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout with one swat.
Another hanging slider _ and a defensive hiccup behind him _ hurt Maeda in the fifth inning. With two on and one out, Maeda got Nick Williams to hit a groundball to first baseman Matt Beaty, who fired the ball to second base in an attempt to start an inning-ending double play. But his off-balanced throw to shortstop Seager bounced, not giving Seager enough time to finish it off. So Williams reached base, giving Arrieta the chance to crack a slider to left field to tie the game for the Phillies (33-24).
Maeda limited the damage there, capping a month of dominance for the Dodgers' starting rotation.
