Pirates, clinging to NL wild-card hopes, swept by Dodgers to start West Coast swing
LOS ANGELES — Blake Snell threw six scoreless innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won their sixth straight game by easing past the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 Sunday.
Snell (2-1) has won consecutive starts and the Dodgers have been victorious in each of his three appearances in August after missing three months because of surgery to remove loose bodies in his left elbow. He allowed two hits and three walks on a sweltering afternoon at Dodger Stadium, but still had enough to end his outing with a 97 mph fastball for his sixth strike out.
The Pirates have dropped eight of their past nine road games. Lake Bachar (1-3) started a bullpen game and allowed one run in two innings, and Carmen Mlodzinski gave up three runs in three innings.
Shohei Ohtani put the Dodgers ahead 1-0 after drawing a leadoff walk on 11 pitches despite falling behind 0-2 in the count.
Thomas and Feduccia extended the lead with consecutive two-out RBI singles in the fourth inning.
On Saturday, recently acquired ace Tarik Skubal shut down the Pirates with 11 strikeouts in seven innings as the Dogers won 3-0.
The Pirates were closest to winning Friday night in the series opener when Oneil Cruz hit a two-run homer to tie the game in the eighth inning, only for Tommy Edman to hit a walk-off single for L.A. in a 5-4 win in 10 innings.
Pirates: RHP Braxton Ashcraft (13-5, 3.68 ERA) will be on the mound Monday night to start a three-game series at the San Diego Padres.
