Will Smith, Gavin Stone return to life as Dodgers beat Brewers
MILWAUKEE — The Dodgers welcomed back two long-lost members of the team who have been here all season. You might remember them. Veteran catcher by the name of Will Smith. Young pitcher by the name of Gavin Stone.
Both were prominent contributors in the first half, Smith making his second straight All-Star team and Stone positioning himself for National League rookie-of-the-year consideration. Then both went missing in action for extended periods of time.
But that battery got a much-needed jump start Tuesday night, Smith delivering three hits, including his first homer in more than a month, and Stone throwing five strong innings for his first win in seven weeks to lead the Dodgers to a 7-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in American Family Field. The Dodgers remained 3½ games ahead of Arizona and San Diego in the NL West.
Smith had hit .094 (five for 53) with a .339 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, one double and five RBIs in 14 games since July 22, dropping his season average from .271 to .245 and his OPS from .828 to .757. He hadn’t hit a home run since his four-homer barrage against the Brewers in Los Angeles on July 5 and 6.
But Smith paced a 13-hit attack with a solo homer in the second inning, a single during a five-run rally in the fourth and a double in the fifth for his first multihit game since July 30, helping the Dodgers (71-49) increase their win streak to five.
Stone threw a four-hit shutout against the White Sox in Chicago on June 26 to improve to 9-2 with a 2.73 ERA in his first 15 starts.
River Ryan, 25, had a 1.33 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 20⅓ innings of four major league starts this season before getting injured Saturday against the Pirates.
The 25-year-old right-hander then went 0-3 with a 6.91 ERA in his next six starts, yielding 21 earned runs and 45 hits — eight of them homers — in 27 ⅓ innings for a .366 average and 1.072 OPS against.
But Stone looked much sharper Tuesday, giving up one earned run and three hits in five innings, striking out six and walking none, to improve to 10-5 with a 3.63 ERA.
“Gavin Stone is a competitor, and he was frustrated with the results, frustrated with his command,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, it was good to see him, from the first pitch, just bow his neck and throw the ball over the plate. The stuff, the secondary [pitches], were really good. Teethy. Swing and miss. He was in control all night long.
“As far as Will … he needed this. He’s been grinding, man. Just to throw out some hits was a good thing. He hasn’t struggled like this in his big-league career, so this is something certainly new to him over a longer stretch. But he’s an easy guy to bet on and kind of find his way.”
Stone pitched around a one-out double in the first inning, he escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the second and struck out the side — Willy Adames, Garrett Mitchell and Rhys Hoskins — with fastballs of 95, 95 and 96 mph in the fourth.
Stone then retired the side in order in the fifth before yielding to right-hander Landon Knack, who gave up one run and three hits over the final four innings for his first career save, allowing the Dodgers to rest all of their high-leverage relievers for the final two games of the four-game series.
Stone, who relied heavily on a four-seam fastball that averaged 95 mph and an 88-mph changeup, threw 86 pitches, 61 for strikes. A five-run fourth inning by the Dodgers gave him all the support he needed.
“It makes it easier to stay on the attack, and that’s really all it was,” Stone said. “They gave me early run support, and it was a lot easier to just trust my pitches in the zone.”
Smith capped a nine-pitch at-bat in the second inning by turning on a 93-mph sinker from right-hander Colin Rea on the inner half and sending a 412-foot drive over the wall in left field for his 16th homer and a 1-0 lead, snapping a streak of 96 plate appearances over 22 games without a homer.
Shohei Ohtani’s NL-leading 37th homer, a 109-mph laser that traveled 413 feet into the second deck in right field, made it 2-0 in the third. The Brewers cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third on a William Contreras homer to left.
The ever-growing prominence of general manager Brandon Gomes speaks volumes about the evolving state of the Dodgers front office.
The Dodgers then blew the game open in the fourth, collecting six hits off Rea, the first a single to center by Teoscar Hernández. Gavin Lux lined a first-pitch sinker 413 feet into the second deck in right for a two-run homer and a 4-1 lead. Lux, the team’s hottest hitter for the last month, is batting .345 (29 for 84) with five homers, seven doubles, 20 RBIs and 11 runs in 27 games since July 11.
“Gavin hadn’t played baseball in a calendar year — you start to wonder if you can ever hit again,” Roberts said of Lux, who missed last season because of knee surgery. “But to his credit, he just kept grinding and worked his way through it. I think this is the best version of Gavin Lux I’ve seen.”
Smith followed Lux’s homer with a single to left-center and took third on Miguel Rojas’ double to right. Kiké Hernández’s sacrifice fly to left made it 5-1, and No. 9 batter Andy Pages lined one off the bottom of the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer — his first since June 18 — and a 7-1 lead.
“It’s always frustrating when you’re struggling,” Smith said. “You just continue to show up every day, go out there and compete and try to help the team win. Just keep working in the cage and keep trying to get better and fix it.”
Short hops
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, sidelined since June 16 because of a rotator-cuff strain, threw a two-inning, 40-pitch bullpen session in Los Angeles. The right-hander is scheduled to join the team in St. Louis on Friday to throw a two-inning simulated game, after which the Dodgers will determine if he is ready for a minor league rehab stint. … Jack Flaherty is scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale against the Brewers. Roberts said he hasn’t decided if Tyler Glasnow will start Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals on regular rest or if the team will insert a spot starter — most likely left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who would have to be called up from triple-A Oklahoma City — and push Glasnow back to Saturday.
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