Yasiel Puig Homers
Yasiel Puig #66 of the Los Angeles Dodgers tosses his bat and heads to first after watching his two run home run clear the fence in the eighth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on July 9, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES – Latino sluggers Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez each hit a pair of two-run homers and the Los Angeles Dodgers pummeled the Philadelphia Phillies 6-0 on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

Puig had a big night for the Boys in Blue going 2-for-4 with a double, home run, run scored and drove in a season high four runs.

"The fact that he got out there and did some early work was good for him," Mattingly said. "It paid off for him today."

With two outs, and two on, in the bottom half of the fourth, Puig doubled down the left-field line knocking in both runs, giving the Dodgers an early 2-0 lead.

Gonzalez connected on a curveball from Severino Gonzalez (no relation) that he promptly banged off the right field foul pole for his 17th home run of the season.

"I knew it was long enough," Gonzalez said of the homer. "It was just a matter of if it was fair. Once I saw hit the pole, I breathed a sigh of relief."

Despite the Latinos providing all the offense, the night belonged to starting pitcher Zack Greinke who extended his scoreless innings streak to an MLB best 35 and 2/3 innings.

Greinke who was named to the National League All-Star Team on Monday made his final case to be the starter when the game kicks off on Tuesday night in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"I think he should start," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "I know Scherzer has been really, really good. But with all due respect, Zack's my guy."

Greinke threw eight shutout innings, allowing just one hit as he did not allow a single run for the fifth consecutive start. The scoreless streak is so remarkable, that Greinke has not surrendered a run since June 13th, making him the sixth pitcher in the live-ball era to have at least five straight scoreless starts.

"I've never seen anybody pitch this consistently," Yasmani Grandal who caught Greinke said. "Tonight, if it wasn't for Howard's base hit, he probably would have had a no-hitter. You can't ask for anything more than the way he's been throwing."

The Phillies were never in the game tonight or last night for that matter as the one-two punch of Kershaw and Greinke proved to be too much for the young team who posts the worst road record (11-34) in baseball to overcome.

Severino Gonzalez (3-3) allowed four runs on five hits in 5.2 innings as the rookie starter was called up before the game to make his seventh start of the season. Gonzalez dropped his third game of the season as his ERA also fell below 8.00 for the first time this year.

Mattingly pinch hit for Greinke in the bottom of the eighth inning, despite the fact that the right hander only had 93 pitches on the evening and could have completed the first back-to-back complete game shutouts in Dodgers history since Pedro Astacio and Tom Candiotti did in 1995.

"If the game stayed at four, we would have let Zack go back out," Mattingly said. "Joel needed an inning to get sharper, so once the game got to 6-0, we weren't going to send Zack back out."

© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.