LOS ANGELES - The Pirates found some offense early, got a jolt from Oneil Cruz late, and still walked out of Dodger Stadium with a 5-4 loss in 10 innings Friday night.
That’s the kind of game that stings more because it was there to be taken. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the Dodgers’ starter, not one of the elite names the Pirates had braced for elsewhere in the series, and Pittsburgh put together a quick push against him. But the Pirates couldn’t finish enough innings, couldn’t cash in in extras, and couldn’t survive the Dodgers’ final push.
Tommy Edman ended it with a line-drive single to left off Gregory Soto, and the Pirates had no answer in the top of the 10th.
Yamamoto was hardly a soft landing, though. He worked 6 1/3 innings, allowed two runs, walked one and struck out nine. His season ERA fell to 2.61, and over his last six starts he has a 1.98 ERA with 10 walks and 39 strikeouts.
Pittsburgh did make him sweat early. The Pirates collected four hits and scored twice in the first three innings, with Nick Gonzales doing the heavy lifting.
Before the game, manager Don Kelly said the Pirates had to be ready for Yamamoto and his splitter, and Gonzales jumped on that pitch right away. In the first inning, he ambushed a first-pitch splitter in the middle of the zone and lined an RBI single to center for a 1-0 lead.
The Dodgers answered fast. Max Muncy turned around a 2-2 sinker from Bubba Chandler and launched it into the right-field seats for a 2-1 lead in the bottom half. It was the first home run Chandler had allowed since July 5, a stretch of seven starts.
Gonzales kept carrying the Pirates. In the third, he tied the game at 2 by hammering a 1-0 sinker in the middle of the plate into center, scoring Brandon Lowe for his second RBI of the night.
Friday was Gonzales’ MLB-high 50th two-hit game of the season, most by a Pirate since Andrew McCutchen had 60 in 2013. He’s now hitting .311, second in the National League behind Luis Arraez (.322) of the Phillies.
But the Dodgers kept finding their own openings. After Chandler struck out Muncy on a full-count changeup, Mookie Betts stepped in and put Los Angeles ahead 4-2 with a two-run single in the third. Betts attacked a first-pitch four-seamer low and away, grounding it up the middle and just past Gonzales at short.
Chandler’s night was uneven from there. He wasn’t as precise with his command as he needed to be, and the Dodgers made him work for hard contact. Over four innings, he allowed eight hard-hit balls at 95 mph or harder and posted an average exit velocity of 95.5.
Cruz gave the Pirates one more swing at it in the eighth. Facing Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt, he ran the count full and then unloaded on a fastball over the plate, sending his 16th homer of the season 424 feet into the tarped-off seats in center with an exit velocity of 112.8 mph. It was his second home run in three games since returning from a 59-game absence because of a pair of fractures in his left hand.
The blast silenced a crowd of 51,872, but the inning ended there. Edgardo Henriquez came in and shut the door, striking out Jake Mangum and getting Jacob Gonzalez to fly out to center.
Pittsburgh got one last crack in the 10th, starting with a hard single to right by Bryan Reynolds. After that, the inning went nowhere. Nick Gonzales struck out swinging, the Dodgers intentionally walked Cruz, and Henry Davis bounced into a double play to end it.
The loss leaves the Pirates at 63-77, still 6 1/2 games back of the final National League Wild Card spot with 32 games left. With Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell coming next, they can’t afford to get swept.
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