Slowly but surely it appears as if the Dodgers are changing course. The club won its third game in a row on Friday evening in Monterrey, doing so in very impressive fashion.
Walker Buehler, Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia and Adam Liberatore combined for the 23rd no-hitter in franchise history during in first game of a three-game set against the Padres in Mexico.
Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez provided the bulk of the offensive damage with solo home runs in the second inning, while Matt Kemp and Alex Verdugo both chipped in with RBI singles en route to the 4-0 victory.
The no-hit bid was the first combined no-hitter in Dodgers history.
Before Friday night, there had not been an MLB game played in Mexico since 1999. According to ESPN, the Los Angeles shutout was the first no-hitter ever outside the U.S. or Canada and the 12th combined no-hitter in major league history.
Buehler pitched six full innings in his third start of the 2018 campaign, and it appears as if this time the youngster could be in the bigs to stay. The rookie righty struck out a career-high eight batters and walked three before being replaced by Cingrani in the seventh.
“It was awesome. It’s one of those things, to pitch in a place like this, an atmosphere like this, it was awesome,” Buehler said after the game. “My curveball was off, but that’s why I have a slider, too. It was good. I was happy with it. Hard-hit balls were outs, as our defense played unbelievable, obviously. It was a cool night.”
Despite walking two batters himself, Cingrani kept the no-hit bid intact.
Garcia threw a perfect eighth inning while Liberatore went untouched in the ninth to seal the deal..
This was Buehler’s second highest pitch count ever in the majors. His highest was 94 pitches, coming in his previous outing against the Giants last weekend.
The contest was almost reminiscent of the time Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts pulled Ross Stripling from a no-hit bid against San Francisco with one out in the eighth inning early in 2016. Reliever Chris Hatcher allowed a home run to the next batter, but this particular contest had a much happier ending.
Weather permitting, righty Kenta Maeda will face San Diego righty Bryan Mitchell on Saturday evening at the same venue. First pitch is slated for 4:10 p.m. Los Angeles time.
With a 15-17 record, the Dodgers still sit in fourth place in the NL West; however, with Friday night’s victory coupled with an Arizona loss, the not-so-hot Diamondbacks now lead Los Angeles by just six games.
NO WAY Buehler gets sent down after tonight (nor Verdugo, for that matter-lol)! Dodgers needed a spark to get ’em going this season and those two are providing it right now. Now if they can just get Toles back while finding more playing time for recent call-up Locastro, THEN this club will be off and running offensively. Turner’s eventual return will merely be icing on the cake as it should be. Btw, turns out slotting in Hernandez at 1B instead of Bellinger tonight really made those front office geeks look pretty damn good for a change! Would rather have Cody there most of the time, however…
We lead the Majors in blown saves. That needs to be fixed.
We are middle of the pack in most offensive categories. Will that be improved with the return of Turner and Forsythe? Probably not. Yeah, we should be better, but not top of the pack better.
I think there is a lot of work to do to be a top tier team. In a cap reset year I have my doubts all will be accomplished. Like Jeff mentioned a few days ago, for the last 60 games or so, we are a .500 team. We continue to play like one.