SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers tout Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a Cy Young award contender, and every one of his starts has been a quality start, including the one he made here Tuesday.
The Dodgers talk up Shohei Ohtani as a Cy Young award contender, and Ohtani has given up one run all season. He pitched six shutout innings here Wednesday.
But the pitcher who delivered the best start of this series against the San Francisco Giants, and the one that stood tall between the Giants and what would have been a humiliating sweep, was Tyler Glasnow.
That was one storyline from an eventful afternoon at the ballpark and, for the Dodgers, a sorely needed 3-0 victory on a day they found themselves a new cleanup hitter, a new closer — and on a day a Giants player blasted a Dodgers player for making a “dirty” play.
Nothing like a little bad blood to breathe a little life into a languishing rivalry.
The cleanup hitter: Kyle Tucker, dropped from second to fourth in the lineup after his average had fallen to .233, ignited a two-run rally in the fourth inning with a double and delivered his first two-hit game in 17 days.
The closer: Tanner Scott, just as the Dodgers planned last year. After Glasnow pitched eight shutout innings and gave up one hit, Scott got the first save situation since the Dodgers lost closer Edwin Díaz to elbow surgery. Scott has a 0.84 ERA this season, including the perfect ninth inning he worked Thursday for the first of what might be quite a few saves this season.
The Dodgers (17-8), remember, signed him for $72 million as their closer last season, but he lost his job and did not pitch in the playoffs.
“It was terrible,” he said. “But I washed it away.”
The “dirty” play was the second of two acts in a sixth-inning drama.
On Tuesday, cameras caught Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing muttering something after looking back at the Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee, who was in discomfort after an awkward slide at home plate. Rushing had tagged out Lee and was headed back to the dugout when he turned back to see Lee on the ground, then kept going.
Rushing did not play Wednesday. On Thursday, in his third plate appearance, Rushing was hit by a pitch from San Francisco starter Logan Webb.
Webb dodged a question about whether the pitch was a response to the thing that happened with Rushing and Lee.
“What thing with Jung Hoo?” Webb said. He simply described the pitch as “fastball, inside.”
Said Rushing: “I like getting on base. Whatever works. If it was intentional, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I deserve. I’ve cleared the air with all of that. I’ve made sure Jung Hoo is good and healthy.”
When the following batter, Hyeseong Kim, grounded to second baseman Luis Arraez, Rushing threw up his hands and slid away from the base to try and prevent shortstop Willy Adames from completing the double play.
The second-base umpire pointed at Rushing and awarded the Giants with the double play. The first-base umpire ruled the Giants had completed the double play anyway, since Adames’ throw beat Kim to first base.
“For me, that’s not good baseball,” Arraez said. “It’s dirty.”
Rushing said the slide was not his response to getting hit.
“I was taught that in college,” he said. “That’s kind of the way you go in, especially when you have a speedster like that with Hyeseong behind me. You’re not going four or five feet outside the bag. You stay within the body length and try to break up a double play. Nothing against any of those guys right there.”
Did Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believe Webb’s pitch was intentional?
“It probably was,” Roberts said. “For me, he [Rushing] said what he said. I don’t think he meant it too personally. But they see it, social media catches it, Webb is an old-school guy. He’s protecting his teammates. I’ve got no problem with it.”
Roberts said he saw nothing wrong with Rushing’s slide.
“I like that too,” Roberts said. “That’s baseball. They’re going to hit you. You know, Webb has got really good command. I get it. They’ll deny it. I like the way he went in hard. No problem. That’s nothing against Adames, but he went in hard and they turned a double play. That’s good baseball — good, hard-nosed baseball.”
And winning baseball, for a happy flight after a mediocre trip. The Dodgers concluded a 3-4 trip to Colorado and San Francisco, the teams projected to finish in the bottom two spots in the National League West. Up next: the Chicago Cubs, winners of nine consecutive games.
Glasnow faced one batter over the minimum over his eight innings. The one hit he allowed was a single. He struck out nine. His ERA is 2.45, with Yamamoto at 2.48.
Roberts said the combination of Glasnow’s evolving maturity — his ability to respond to setbacks and challenges — makes him a legitimate Cy Young candidate.
“Now, for me, he’s going to be in that conversation,” Roberts said. “And I think for me, that was the missing piece. You know you’re not going to feel great every outing. There’s going to be stress, there’s going to be things that you can’t control, and you got to be able to manage it. And I think now he’s equipped mentally to do that.”
There is one thing Glasnow has yet to accomplish. The Dodgers decided a season-high 105 pitches from an oft-injured pitcher was enough this early in the year.
However, this could have been his big chance: In 133 major league starts and 130 minor league starts, he never has pitched a complete game.
“That,” Glasnow said, “would be sick.”
