Los Angeles, CA: The Mets come into this 4 game series with the Dodgers having just completed their second sweep of the season beating the Phillies in a 3 game sweep followed by a 3 game sweep of the Nationals. With shutouts in back-to-back games where the pitching staff has not allowed a run over their last 21 innings. So the Dodger batters could be in or a rough ride.
Dodger’s starter Tony Gonsolin, 5-0, 1.80 ERA, will face a Mets team that is on fire. The Mets lead all of major league baseball in team batting with a .268 BA, OBP .338, Hits 473 and RBIs 258. Pete Alonso has hit safely in all 10 games he has played in sunny Dodger Stadium batting .406 (13-32), 6 runs, 2 doubles, 1 triple with 4 homers and 9 RBI’s and must be chomping at the bit to be in LA.
But the Mets saw a good mix of pitches from Gonsolin and were having trouble laying off of his splitter that had real good sharp breaking in the dirt action. Alonso fell prey to that in his first inning swinging strikeout. He ended up striking out 3 times tonight, the last to end the game.
Met’s starter Taijuan Walker kept pace with good command and control on all his pitches. Changing speeds to keep the Dodger hitters off balance. The Dodgers were swinging at first pitches more than they usually do and his splitter was equally nasty. 9 of Gonsolin’s 18 outs were off of splitters and 11 of Walker’s 17 outs were on splitters. It was splitters gone wild tonight!
The Dodgers were first to score on 3 straight singles by Chris Taylor, Gavin Lux with Mookie Betts getting the first RBI of the game. None of the hits were off of splitters.
Trea Turner extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a 6th inning line drive double down the left field line and scored the Dodger’s second run when Justin Turner (On his jersey give away night) finally hit a 2 out double off one of Walkers splitters. That was it for Walker who otherwise pitched outstanding. His line was 5.2 inn, 7 hits, 2 runs on 94 pitches, 59 for strikes. Gonsolin was also done after 6 innings, with a line of 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches 55 for strikes. It was the first time in 53 games that the Mets were shutout this year.
Tonight was all about pitching for both clubs and the crowd of 48,018 here at Dodger Stadium got their moneys worth as they saw the two top teams in the National League play a nail bitting close game. Both starters pitched great and the bullpens didn’t implode for either team. Mets fans should not feel bad about this loss. These two teams look to be evenly matched and this series could end in a split decision. Neither of these squads will likely score a knockout.
