LOS ANGELES, CA — Welcome to Dodger Stadium on the fourth of July in sunny Southern California! Live Mariachi band, cold drinks, and food. Followed by a spectacular fireworks display. What else could you ask for? Well, how about a good old fashion baseball game? One without all the launch angles, spin rates, and velocity plastered all over the scoreboard. Honestly, the modern big league scoreboards have so much information on them that they look like the cockpit of a 747!
Emmit Sheehan, in his fourth start this season, looked shaky in the first inning. After getting the first two outs, he walked the next three batters, followed by a ground-rule double by Nick Gonzales that netted the first two Pirates runs.
Emmit Sheehan, who made his MLB career debut on June 16th, 2023 – Image Credit: Getty Images
He threw 37 pitches and only 18 for strikes in that first inning.
Luis L. Ortiz, San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, making his first-ever start against the Dodgers, was roughed up in the bottom of the second inning when LA took the lead 4-2 with home runs by James Outman with one runner on base, and Mookie Betts, his twenty third of the season. Four hours before the game, we could see Dodger manager Dave Roberts hitting some grounders deep in the outfield to Outman and then talking to him for a long time. When asked about that in his pre-game scrum in the Dodger dugout, he said he spoke to him about getting his confidence back and other things relating to his at-bats. Whatever he told him, it worked.
Luis L. Ortiz, who made his MLB career debut on September 13th, 2022 – Image Credit: Pittsburgh Pirates/MLB
Sheehan could never settle down as the Pirates took advantage of a steady diet of 95-97 fastballs when they regained the lead 5-4 in the fourth inning. Sheehan left with a line of three and two-thirds innings, four hits, five runs, all earned, four walks, one strikeout, and one home run.
When Ortiz gave up his second two-run home run to Outman in the next inning and put two more runners on base, he was done.
James does it again! pic.twitter.com/Qms6IJPYq0
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 5, 2023
He left the game with a line of three and one-third innings, nine hits, six runs, all earned, one walk, three strikeouts, and three home runs.
The Dodgers would take the lead 7-6 on a Jonny Deluca pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. But then the Pirates would take the lead 9-7 in the top of the ninth on two walks, a single, and a double. The game took three hours and 14 minutes, making it a “Good Old Fashion Baseball Game!”
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 5, 2023
Happy Fourth of July!
#FourthofJuly at Dodger Stadium. pic.twitter.com/ImGnVLxHaf
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 5, 2023
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