Dodgers tie Los Angeles team doubles record to blow out Pirates

Results for the Dodgers offense were a complete 180 from the series opener, and what fueled Tuesday night’s 11-1 win over the Pirates at PNC Park was how often Los Angeles batters ran 180 feet from home plate.

Eight doubles by the Dodgers tied a team record since moving to Los Angeles, and fell just one shy of the franchise mark done twice in Brooklyn. The extra-base hits came in waves on Tuesday.

After Pirates outfielders made a few stellar catches in the series opener, the Dodgers were able to find grass on several occasions in this one. Freddie Freeman started the double barrage in the first inning, just three days after he had three doubles in a game in Chicago. It was Freeman’s fifth double in five games on this road trip.

Trea Turner and Justin Turner doubled up with doubles of their own, each scoring a run in the opening frame off Bryse Wilson.

Wilson allowed another double to Justin Turner in the third inning, this one knocking in two runs, which quickly ended the night for the Pirates starter. Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes hit back-to-back doubles off Anthony Banda to cap a five-run inning.

It’s the first time the Dodgers had three doubles in one inning twice in a game since April 22, 1984. That was against the Padres at home, in the same innings as this one. Steve Sax, Steve Yeager, and German Rivera all doubled in a six-run first inning off Tim Lollar, then Sax, Candy Maldonado, and Rivera doubled off Sid Monge in the third.

“That was what you’d call an old-fashioned butt-kicking,” San Diego manager Jack McKeon said that day, per the Associated Press. That was a 15-7 Dodgers rout that also saw them hit four home runs in addition to their seven doubles.

Los Angeles similarly piled on Tuesday against the Pirates.

The next barrage was in the seventh inning, which didn’t start with a double. Max Muncy lined a ball that skipped past a diving Bryan Reynolds in center field, giving Muncy an easy triple. Two more doubles came in the next three pitches, by Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger.

Turner’s third double tied a Dodgers franchise record for a single game, something he also did in 2015 and 2018. Turner, who was robbed of a double on Monday, drove in four runs and scored twice with his three doubles on Tuesday.

Turner added a single in the ninth for his fourth hit of the night, matching his total over the previous 11 games, in 40 at-bats.

A fourth consecutive extra-base hit followed in the seventh, with Edwin Ríos hitting a towering home run to right field, his second homer in as many nights. After a stretch that saw the Dodgers face eight left-handed starting pitchers in nine games, Ríos made his first start since April 27, with three hits and three runs batted.

Only twice has a Dodgers team hit more doubles in a game than Tuesday night. The first was July 25, 1894 against the Beaneaters (now Braves) in Boston, and next was June 4, 1939 against the Pirates at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

Pittsburgh had two doubles of their own, the first by Reynolds giving the Pirates runners on second and third with nobody out in the opening frame. But Mookie Betts doubled his assist total both in the series and on the season to erase Ben Gamel at the plate.

That helped Tony Gonsolin wiggle out of that jam, and the right-hander didn’t allow another hit. Gonsolin walked four in total, but struck out five in his five scoreless innings to earn the win.

Gonsolin only got three swinging strikes all night, but two came with the curveball, which he threw about double the rate (20.2 percent) he usually does (10.6 percent).

That lowered Gonsolin’s ERA this season to a minuscule 1.33. His career ERA (2.60), by comparison, is about double that.

Tuesday particulars

Home run: Edwin Ríos (3)

WP — Tony Gonsolin (3-0): 5 IP, 1 hit, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts

LP — Bryse Wilson (0-2): 2⅔ IP, 8 hits, 6 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

Up next

Ryan Pepiot makes his major league debut on Wednesday, with a breakfast-time start in Los Angeles (9:35 a.m., SportsNet LA). The Dodgers will try to double their wins in the series.