O Dodger It is San Diego Priests weathered a 2-hour, 15-minute rain delay before starting Saturday night’s game at Chavez Ravine under rainy skies, 48-degree temperatures and enough breeze to further chill the bones, hardly ideal conditions for a game of baseball.
They were almost perfect for Gavin Stonethe right-hander who painted a five-inning masterpiece on the sodden canvas before settling for the best start of his brief career, a 6⅔ innings, two-run, five-hit effort that led the Dodgers to a 5-2 victory in front of a crowd of 44,582 at Dodger Stadium.
Stone, a 25-year-old making his seventh career big league start and 11th appearance, struck out four, walked one and struck out 18 of 25 first-pitch batters. Of his 88 pitches, 60 were strikes.
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He used his five-pitch mix – a sinker averaging 95.3 mph, changeup (86.6 mph), four-seamer (94.5 mph), fastball (91.7 mph) and curveball (83.5 mph ) – to induce 11 swing strikes and 12 strike calls.
“This is what can happen when you pitch with conviction,” manager Dave Roberts he said. “He was on offense from the first pitch, flooding the zone, making those guys uncomfortable and using his full pitch mix… and we needed that. We needed length. We needed to put zeroes in and he was fantastic all night.”
Stone’s bid for a perfect game ended with a leadoff walk to Tyler Wade in the sixth. Eguy Rosario grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, but No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka ended Stone’s no-hitter with a clean ground ball to left field.
Jackson Merrill, the 20-year-old rookie who took the lead Saturday, singled to right, advancing Higashioka to third, and Fernando Tatis Jr. took the lead.
The Dodgers managed just one run and three hits in five innings from Padres starter Matt Waldron’s knuckleball-throwing Mookie Betts giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead with a two-out RBI single to left field in the fourth.
But the Dodgers beat left-hander Tom Cosgrove for three runs and three hits in the bottom of the sixth, a comeback that began with Max Muncy being hit by a pitch. Kiké Hernández hit a single to right, and Gavin Lux hit an RBI single off Wade’s glove at second base for a 2-1 Dodgers lead.
Betts lined an RBI single to right to make it 3-1, and Shohei Ohtani threw a sacrifice fly to center Adrian Morejon to make it 4-1.
Stone gave up another run in the seventh when Ha-Seong Kim doubled and scored on Wade’s RBI single to bring the Padres to 4-2. But the Dodgers got that rally back in the bottom of the seventh when Teoscar Hernández singled to right, took third on Tatis’ two-base throwing error and scored on Muncy’s sacrifice fly for a 5-2 lead.
Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson struck out the side in the eighth, and closer Evan Phillips gave up two hits in a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
The closest the Padres came to a hit in the first five innings was Wade’s soft line drive, which Betts, the Dodgers’ shortstop, threw a diving backhand into in the first of the third.
“First-pitch hitting was absolutely key for Gavin,” Roberts said. “These guys are aggressive early in the count, and for him to be able to use both sides of the plate, hit his changeup and then steal some strikes with the curveball…getting ahead in the count and then being able to dictate the count is huge.”
The game took a strange turn in the top of the fifth after Stone struck out Manny Machado with an 86 mph changeup for the first out.
Jurickson Profar attempted a drag bunt before pulling back his bat and making the first pitch for the ball. Stone’s next pitch, a 92 mph fastball, rose and nearly hit Profar, who exchanged words with Dodgers catcher Will Smith.
The benches and bullpens were emptied, with players converging on home plate, but no punches were thrown. Stone had Profar fly to the center of the field and Kim to fly to the right, keeping his perfect game intact.
“I don’t know what happened,” Smith said of Profar’s hit. “He was offended by a mower in there. He was looking at Stoney and I felt like I needed to say something and defend Stoney. I thought the whole thing was silly, stupid, whatever you want to call it. I really don’t know why [he’d think] we were trying to hit him there. It was weird.”
Did Profar think the Dodgers were playing him because he stepped up to bunt on the first pitch?
“For a moment, I thought so,” the Padres left fielder said. “But he was having a perfect game, so he wasn’t going to do that.”
Smith was impressed that Stone was unfazed by the fight.
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“It didn’t phase him at all,” Smith said. “He remained calm. He was in a good state of mind today. He was out there competing and making shots.”
Stone credited Smith for guiding him throughout the game.
“I feel like me and Will were on the same page pretty much the whole night,” Stone said. “I was just attacking, hitting the zone with all my pitches and trying to be as confident as possible. … I feel like every pitcher has to throw with conviction. Otherwise, you won’t be so smart.”
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
