Lance Lynn’s seven-inning, two-run, five-hit effort in Tuesday evening’s 11-2 victory over the San Diego Padres wasn’t the type of dominant begin that can gas hopes that the burly right-hander can entrance the Dodgers’ playoff rotation or carry the staff to the World Sequence in October.
But it surely offered a much-needed shot within the arm to a workers that has been ravaged by season-ending elbow accidents to Dustin Could and Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw’s velocity-sapping shoulder harm, Walker Buehler’s aborted comeback from Tommy John surgical procedure and Julio Urías’ current arrest on suspicion of home violence.
Lynn gave an overworked bullpen a respite with a 111-pitch effort during which he struck out three and walked two, and first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Will Smith offered the majority of the offense to assist the Dodgers scale back their magic quantity to clinch their tenth Nationwide League West title in 11 years to 5 video games.
Freeman celebrated his thirty fourth birthday in model with 4 hits and 4 runs, smacking a two-run house run within the third inning and his major-league-leading and franchise-record-extending fifty fifth double to proper discipline within the eighth. He now has 121 runs on the season, a profession excessive.
Smith doubled within the first, walked and scored within the third, cracked a three-run homer within the fourth and was hit by a pitch and scored within the seventh.
“Yeah, after I walked in at present and noticed all this right here, I simply type of set free amusing,” stated Freeman, whose nook locker within the clubhouse was crammed with blue and silver balloons, packing containers of cookies and a case of fantastic wine gifted to him by teammate Jason Heyward, who has the locker subsequent door.
“I type of knew who was accountable — that is my locker mate right here. It is simply cool. All the blokes began saying comfortable birthday at round 10 a.m., after I wakened, so it was simply good. Everybody let me understand it was my birthday.”
A mariachi band serenaded Freeman with a birthday tune earlier than the begin of the second inning, and a crowd of 42,194 in Chavez Ravine chanted his title — “Freddie! Freddie!” — within the ninth.
“You’ve bought a four-deck stadium, the one one in baseball, you may have 50,000 folks right here each evening, for them to exit of their option to make you are feeling good while you’re doing all of your job, it means loads,” Freeman stated. “I do respect it.”
Lynn went 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in his first 5 begins for the Dodgers after his July 28 commerce from the Chicago White Sox however was rocked for 15 earned runs and 14 hits — six of them homers — in 9 innings of his subsequent two begins, losses to Atlanta and Miami.
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“The final two begins weren’t good, and I believe it was a wake-up name for Lance,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated earlier than the sport. “Not that he wants one, however he takes it personally. He is a professional, and I count on him to go on the market and refill the strike zone and make high quality pitches and put us able to win.”
Lynn did simply that regardless of serving up his major-league-high forty first house run, a solo shot by Fernando Tatis Jr. within the fifth inning.
Lynn escaped a two-on, no-out jam in a 26-pitch first inning by getting Juan Soto to come out to 3rd, Manny Machado to fly to the warning observe in proper, and putting out Xander Bogaerts on a full-count, 94-mph fastball.
Dodgers shortstop Kiké Hernández made an excellent backhand snag of Tatis’ 111-mph one-hopper and fired to second baseman Mookie Betts to start out a double play to finish the third.
The Padres loaded the bases with no outs within the fourth on Soto’s double, Machado’s single and Bogaerts’ stroll, however Lynn minimized injury by retiring Trent Grisham on an RBI fielder’s selection (a bunt to 3rd), Matthew Batten on a fly to proper and Brett Sullivan on a fly to left.
“I don’t assume Lance had command tonight — everybody within the ballpark noticed that he was looking for his supply, the ball was performing some funky issues, and he was stepping into some dangerous counts, some walks there,” Roberts stated. “However he made pitches when he wanted to.
“The double play from Kiké, and that fourth inning, after they had the bases loaded and Grisham lays down a bunt, that bought us out of the inning. That modified the sport. Man hitting within the six-hole lays down a bunt … he principally did us a favor, as a result of they’d [Lynn] on the ropes. He recovered and bought by seven.”
Freeman jump-started the Dodgers offense with a single to middle with one out within the first inning. He took third on Smith’s double to left and scored on Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly to middle for a 1-0 lead.
Hernández led off the third with a single to proper, and Freeman drove a one-out homer to left-center, his twenty sixth of the season, for a 3-0 lead. Smith, Muncy and J.D. Martinez walked to load the bases, and David Peralta’s fielder’s selection made it 4-0.
The Padres scored within the prime of the fourth, however the Dodgers answered with three extra runs within the backside half of the inning, Hernández reaching on a one-out infield single, Freeman stroking a two-out single to proper and Smith crushing a three-run homer to middle — his first extra-base hit since Sept. 3 and first homer since Aug. 29 — for a 7-1 lead.
The Dodgers tacked on two insurance coverage runs within the seventh, loading the bases with no outs in opposition to reliever Nick Hernandez and scoring on Chris Taylor’s RBI single and Outman’s sacrifice fly off veteran left-hander Wealthy Hill, and two within the eighth on Martinez’s two-run single.
Learn extra: Dodgers take away Julio Urías’ locker and murals that includes pitcher round Dodger Stadium
Harm’s spectacular debut
The Dodgers promoted one other prized pitching prospect, Kyle Harm, from triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis, and the 25-year-old right-hander shined in his big-league debut.
Harm changed Lynn to start out the eighth inning and retired the guts of the Padres order — Tatis on a fly ball to middle, Soto on a grounder to shortstop and Machado on a grounder to 3rd. He then struck out the facet so as — Garrett Cooper, Grisham and Batten — within the ninth.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Harm, a Rancho Santa Fe native who performed at USC, had the very best strikeout price within the minors, going 4-4 with a 3.87 ERA, 145 strikeouts and 41 walks in 88⅓ innings over 25 video games (16 begins) for double-A Tulsa and Oklahoma Metropolis.
Ranked the group’s Twelfth-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, Harm includes a fastball that sits between 93-96 mph and touches 98, a plus changeup, tight slider and curve.
Harm, who will present size out of the bullpen, was a fifth-round decide of the Marlins in 2020. He was acquired together with left-hander Alex Vesia for reliever Dylan Floro earlier than the 2021 season.
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This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Instances.