On a day the Dodgers welcomed a host of reinforcements back to their lineup, they might have witnessed the return of Gavin Stone, as well.
In a 3-0 defeat of the Seattle Mariners on Monday night, the Dodgers fielded a (mostly) full-strength offense, getting Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Tommy Edman back from injuries in what was their most complete-looking lineup since early this season.
However, it was the once-slumping Stone whose reemergence looked brightest.
A rookie sensation in the first half of the season who had struggled to limit contact or induce swing-and-miss in his last seven outings (when he had a 6.12 ERA and only one outing of at least six innings), Stone rediscovered his early-season form Monday, pitching seven scoreless innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts.
Facing a Mariners offense that entered the night ranked last in the majors in both batting average and strikeouts, Stone did exactly what he was supposed to against Seattle’s light-hitting lineup.
He pounded the strike zone (first-pitch strikes to 18 of 24 batters, and on 59 of 90 pitches overall). And he dared the Mariners to hit him, giving up only two singles (and two walks) en route to his best start since a shutout of the Chicago White Sox in late June.
The Dodgers (74-52) needed every bit of it too.
Despite fielding their healthiest lineup since opening day, in manager Dave Roberts’ estimation, the team was blanked through six innings by young Seattle starter Bryan Woo, posing few threats even with Freeman (who returned from a one-game absence with a finger fracture), Muncy (back from an oblique injury that sidelined him since May) and Edman (a key trade deadline acquisition playing his first game this year after offseason wrist surgery and a mid-summer ankle sprain).
Only in the bottom of the seventh — moments after Stone narrowly escaped his one true jam with the help of a leaping catch by Freeman at first — did the Dodgers’ bats finally come alive.
Gavin Lux opened the scoring with an opposite-field home run, continuing his second-half tear with his sixth home run since the All-Star break (he only had three prior).
Muncy then punctuated his return with a two-run shot to right, providing the kind of bottom-of-the-order punch (he was batting seventh) the Dodgers have sorely lacked for much of the season.
For one night, it all added up to a recipe the Dodgers will need to replicate in October.
A strong starting pitching performance. Timely offense from a well-rounded lineup. And, for the eighth time in their last 11 games, a win — one that kept the Dodgers’ NL West lead to three games over the San Diego Padres and four games over the Arizona Diamondbacks (both division rivals were victorious Monday), and moved them back into a virtual tie with the Philadelphia Phillies for the best record in the National League.