CHICAGO — Tony Gonsolin’s breakout season rolls on.
The Dodgers right-hander held the Chicago White Sox to three hits over six innings in a 4-1 victory on Wednesday night, becoming the kind of pitcher who stops losing streaks now. The Dodgers had lost their previous three games.
Gonsolin ran his record to 7-0. His ERA stands at a National League-low 1.58 after he allowed fewer than two runs for the eighth time in his 11 starts. Gonsolin has gone six innings in each of his past five (after never doing it back-to-back outings before in the big leagues) and has now reached a career high in innings pitched (57) during a big-league season.
“He’s just attacking the zone more, for me,” said Trea Turner who hit the last of three Dodgers’ home runs Wednesday. “I only got to see him a little bit last year but it seemed like he got the pitch count up pretty early last year. This year, he’s been so efficient. A lot of weak contact early which is great, strikeouts when he needs them. He makes pitches when he needs them. He’s got those four pitches. He’s kind of doing everything. But for me, it’s about being in the zone and just going after guys.
“I don’t know how many starts he’s made this year but the last five or so I just feel really, really good out there.”
Gonsolin struck out five, finishing strong by getting three of those against the last five batters he faced.
“We’ve always talked about he has the weapons — a four-pitch guy — to get righties out, to get lefties out, but it’s trusting his stuff in the strike zone and understanding how to navigate a lineup,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think right now, the blinders are on and he’s just really focused on his work. Everything is intentional now. He doesn’t let previous innings or looking out for the next hitter — he’s really in the moment and he’s doing a fantastic job.”
Gonsolin retired 12 of the first 14 White Sox batters, pausing only for a two-out single by Jake Burger in the second inning and a hit batter to start the fourth.
The fifth inning was Gonsolin’s only bump in the road.
Burger got him for a leadoff home run. A double by Gavin Sheets and a walk of AJ Pollock put two more runners on with no outs, prompting a visit from pitching coach Mark Prior.
“Prior came out and just said one at a time. ‘Just get the first out. Then get the next one. Then get the next one,’” Gonsolin said. “Just tried to do that, take it one at a time.”
Gonsolin escaped with no more damage. Danny Mendick bounced into a forceout, Leury Garcia struck out and Luis Robert flew out.
It’s the kind of inning that might have gotten away from Gonsolin in the past — or at the very least run up a pitch count that would probably already have been swollen. This time, he stayed in and retired the side in order in the sixth.
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“That’s right. That’s right,” Roberts said. “You can look back at the growth where we’re going to the ‘pen and there’s more traffic and you have to do an up-down with a guy (use a reliever for more than one inning). But he was going to finish that inning. I was going to make sure he finished that inning and to his credit, he finished that inning and came back and gave us another inning.
“He didn’t empty the tank in that fifth inning. You look at the efficiency now that he’s having to get through two and a half times, face 25 hitters or something like that — just continued growth on Tony’s part.”
The Dodgers sent Gonsolin to the mound with a lead after Will Smith followed Trea Turner’s two-out bloop single in the first with a home run 397 feet into the left field seats.
An inning later, Cody Bellinger led off with a line drive into the right field seats off White Sox starter Johnny Cueto, making it a 3-0 cushion for Gonsolin.
“No one on base, he’s going to kind of do his thing to get you off your timing,” Bellinger said of the crafty Cueto. “I just tried to stay within myself, try to get the pitch I want to hit and try to focus on that.”
The early offense was almost the only offense from the Dodgers. Cueto gave up just one more hit in his six innings – an infield single by Gavin Lux in the fifth that knocked the glove off of Cueto’s hand.
Eleven Dodgers went down in order against Cueto and the White Sox bullpen before Trea Turner led off the ninth inning with a home run.
Yency Almonte, Brusdar Graterol and Daniel Hudson combined to close it out with a scoreless inning each.