The scoreless streak didn’t last long in Game 2.
New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor opened Monday’s NLCS game with a leadoff home run to snap the Los Angeles Dodgers postseason scoreless streak at 33 innings. It was the first run the Dodgers had allowed since Game 3 of the Division Series, six days ago, and it Lindor’s first hit since his game-winning grand slam in NLDS Game 4 on Wednesday.
A scoreless first inning would have broken the record, but Lindor had other plans.
Despite a pitching staff decimated by injuries, the Dodgers tied a record that had stood for 57 years. During the streak, they pitched three shutouts and scored 23 unanswered runs. Their bullpen accounted for most of those scoreless frames.
“I think we’re all kind of taking a little bit of extra pride in this, this little bit of run here,” Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson said before Monday’s game. “We were leaned on pretty heavily in the regular season and to see it carry over and have success in the playoffs is really cool for all of us, and we’re really proud down there.”
The Baltimore Orioles set the record in 1966 when they swept the Dodgers — of all teams — in the World Series. The Orioles allowed no runs beyond the third inning of Game 1, building their 33-inning scoreless streak as Jim Palmer pitched the first of three complete game shutouts, and the Orioles used only four pitchers in the entire series.
Times have changed. The Dodgers tied the record by very different means.
Dodgers scoreless innings streak
Using 12 different pitchers, including eight in one game, the Dodgers’ staff got on a roll despite getting more than five innings from only one starting pitcher. And the streak started at something of a low point, when they seemed to be on the verge of elimination.
In Game 3 of the NLDS, Dodgers starter Walker Buehler gave up six runs in the second inning. It was enough for the San Diego Padres to win the game, but the Padres didn’t score again for the rest of the series. Buehler pitched a clean third inning, and the Dodgers scoreless streak had begun.
Eight relievers pitched a scoreless bullpen game in NLDS Game 4, Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered five good innings in the clinching Game 5 and Jack Flaherty was dominant through seven scoreless innings in NLCS Game 1. Sunday’s ninth inning, tossed by rookie reliever Ben Casparius, tied the record for consecutive scoreless innings in a postseason. Veteran reliever Ryan Brasier — acting as an opener — would have broken the record with a scoreless first inning on Monday.
The streak was, perhaps, more remarkable for the pitchers not involved as the Dodgers have an entire rotation’s worth of pitchers — Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Gavin Stone — currently injured and unavailable.
(Photo of Francisco Lindor: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
