Dodgers Blank Pirates 5-0 behind Stripling, Pederson, Bellinger

[Box Score]
[LA Times]

I was blacked out of this one thanks to MLB’s blackout restriction rules. I got to listen to nine innings of Charlie Steiner, never a bad thing.

The Dodgers had another great night. They won their fourth straight game, and eighth straight road contest. Ross Stripling was dominant again, striking out seven hitters in five innings and he didn’t issue a single walk.

Joc Pederson homered to get scoring kicked off, at that point his third in three at bats against Joe Musgrove. Yasiel Puig added his 8th of the season.

And then, Cody Bellinger got his. There’s been a lot of talk about Bellinger getting sent down if business doesn’t pick up. It’s nice to see that – if Bellinger is going down – he’s going down swinging.

Bellinger caught a Tyler Glasnow mistake down and over the middle of the plate and hit it to a part of PNC Park in Pittsburgh that you don’t see many balls land. This one traveled over the script hedge bushes that spell ‘PIRATES’ in dead center.

That gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead. Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, Josh Fields, and Daniel Hudson provided four innings of shutout relief.

The Dodgers are finally back to .500 at 30-30. The Diamondbacks won in San Francisco, so the Dodgers remain two games out of first place behind Arizona. Colorado is sandwiched in between at 31-29, just a single game better.

It’s shaping up for it to be an NL West dogfight, just like we thought all along.