Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Shutout For the First Time in Almost 2 Years on Wednesday

Wednesday night was not how the Dodgers envisioned wrapping up their series with the Phillies. With Zack Wheeler on the mound, everyone knew that it was going to be a tight game. But the hope was that the offense would be able to break through against a potential Cy Young candidate. 

That did not happen though. The Dodgers had plenty of traffic on the bases, including a bases-loaded opportunity in the 1st inning. But the offense found a way to squander every opportunity handed to them, including 4 walks from Wheeler. 



It was the first time that the Dodgers’ have been shut out all season. But as Dave Roberts pointed out after the game, health isn’t the only reason. Los Angeles has been down guys all year and has still managed to scratch across runs. 

We haven’t had a lot of our guys all year and it’s the first time. The odds, regardless of who you have, it’s bound to happen. Zack threw a heck of a ballgame.

The last time the Dodgers failed to score a run was September 14, 2019 against the Mets. As always. Jacob deGrom was dealing that night and went 7 scoreless with 8 punchouts. On Wednesday night, Zach Wheeler went 6 scoreless and punched out 6. The Phillies bullpen cleaned up the remaining innings by punching out 4 more batters to avoid the sweep. 

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The Dodgers also had to do it without guys like Will Smith and Justin Turner in the lineup. Roberts later confirmed that Wednesday was a complete day off for JT, which is why he did not get a pinch-hit opportunity late in the game. 

All good things must come to an end. Time to start a new streak on Friday.

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7 Comments

  1. Last night watching Mookie at bat in bottom of the 9th was strong persuasion for electronic strike zone. Umpiring has been especially bad at home plate this year, so inconsistent yet consistently erratic. Betts took the first three pitches which were all the same, outside by 9 inches in same location. The first two were called strikes. Betts shook his head slightly by didn’t bite on the third ball and somehow it’s called a ball, finally. But it’s two outs, bottom of the ninth, sown 2-0, and this at bat was destroyed by the ump. Count should have been 3-0 not 1-2, and would have been different for the Dodgers with accurate calls. Occasional error by the umpire make the game interesting but regularly blowing the balls and strikes ruins the game. We need averages and error rates to be published on the accuracy of umpiring just like every other metric in baseball-reference.

  2. Roberts confirmed it was a complete day off for Turner. How about waiting a day and sitting him against Arizona after the day off on the schedule? Was it really pressing to sit JT when you’re sitting Smith in favor of Barnes and giving Pujols the day off? What’s he going for – degree of difficulty?

    1. That would have been the better plan for Turner to sit him after the off day because we already have Muncy, Bellinger, seager out of lineup along with Smith sitting too. It’s what Roberts does in creating a give away game. That lineup out there on Wednesday might have struggled against AA pitching as well.

  3. Don’t understand why JT needed the day off. Today, Thursday, is an off/travel day anyways. And it’s not like they are going to the east coast either. They’re just headed to Arizona

  4. What’s so amazing to me about the Dodgers’ stretch of not being shutout is how many games they played during that time when they did not score a run, not one, until the 5th, 6th or even 7th inning.
    The Dodgers have been shutout through at least 5 innings with more frequency than they should, over the past couple of years and yet, somehow, always managed to manufacture some runs.
    Having said that, you could smell that Wheeler was not going to allow even 1 run while he was out there, even before the game started, but I was hoping the Dodgers could break through against the Phils’ Pen.
    Dodgers need to come back strong and rake big time against the historically bad D’backs. There is no excuse, none, for the Dodgers offense to have any issues in this 3 game series. No excuse!

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