After throwing 100 pitches without giving up a hit, Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling’s night against the San Francisco Giants came to an end. It was a decision that proved costly for the Dodgers, who lost 3-2 after Brandon Crawford hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
In his major league debut, Stripling threw 7.1 no-hit innings while striking out four. The 26-year-old had his team at a 2-0 advantage over the Giants on Friday night but was pulled by manager Dave Roberts after an eighth-inning one-out walk to Angel Pagan.
Baseball Tonight provided the official update:
Going into the eighth, rain began to fall at AT&T Park. No delay was called, but it could’ve hindered Stripling’s matchup against Pagan. It was Stripling’s fourth walk of the night, but despite working out of jams for most of the game, the Dodgers did not want to let their rookie pitcher go beyond the century mark in pitches.
The very next batter was rookie Trevor Brown, who hit a game-tying two-run home run off Chris Hatcher to make it a 2-2 game.
Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports called it right away:
Andy Glockner of The Cauldron knows the ball doesn’t tell many truths, even in baseball:
However, it appears pulling Stripling was not Roberts’ call to make, per Steve Mason of ESPN Los Angeles:
That, however, wouldn’t be the last time Roberts got involved during the game. After Brown’s homer, Ehire Adrianza pinch-hit for Josh Osich and drew a walk. Roberts was ejected for arguing the call, the first such occurrence of his short managerial career.
After further review on MLB‘s game tracker, Roberts was wrong, per Jesse Spector of Sporting News:
With the rain continuing to pour, Crawford ended the wild night with a walk-off homer and gave the Dodgers their second loss of the season, per Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times:
Stripling said after the game he had “no ill feelings toward the decision one bit,” per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com).
“Thinking that’s just the right choice,” Stripling said. “If we had more leeway, maybe we stick it out.”
Roberts said Stripling’s father “thanked him with eyes watering up [on Saturday] for taking care of his son, per Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
It’s understandable why Stripling was pulled at the 100-pitch mark. A pitcher making his major league debut shouldn’t have to go all out, which could hinder performance and arm strength down the road. In the long term, it was the right call.
Stripling looked frustrated coming off the mound, and rightly so. Not only was he in position to win his first start, but he was going for a no-hitter against the Dodgers’ biggest rivals.
The last pitcher to pitch a no-hitter in his major league debut still remains Bumpus Jones back in October 1892, but if the Dodgers hadn’t made the call to pull Stripling, that mark might have fallen Friday night.
Stripling’s next start is expected to be next Thursday, at home, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Arizona’s offense has gotten off to a slow start, even with star Paul Goldschmidt batting .231 through four games. At home for the first time, Stripling could be in line for another stellar outing in front of the Dodger faithful.
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