Gavin Stone, Max Muncy shine as Dodgers shut out Mariners – Daily Breeze

LOS ANGELES — Gavin Stone had one of the best outings of his young career and Max Muncy reminded the home fans that third base at Dodger Stadium remains in good hands.

While the Seattle Mariners’ Justin Turner was the toast of pregame ceremonies, Stone took over once the game began and Muncy stole everybody’s thunder in his return to the lineup with a late two-run home run in a 3-0 Dodgers victory.

Not to be outdone was Gavin Lux, who continued his recent revival with a seventh-inning home run to break a scoreless deadlock.

“I’ve said before, this is as good as I’ve seen him and we’ve needed every bit of the performance,” Manager Dave Roberts said of Lux, who is batting .333 in 17 August games with three home runs and 10 RBIs. “I expect him to keep going because this is who he is now.”

The Dodgers returned home from a 4-3 road trip to win four the fourth consecutive time at Dodger Stadium. In the process, they maintained a three-game lead on the San Diego Padres in the National League West and a four-game advantage on the Arizona Diamondbacks after both rivals won their games on Monday.

Stone (11-5) was in complete control of the Seattle lineup, finishing with 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings. He allowed two hits with two walks.

“I’m just trying to get wins for the club,” Stone said. “Last year wasn’t so great so just working on all the stuff in the offseason and seeing it pay off throughout the season is big.”

Before the fourth inning was over, Stone already had a career best in strikeouts with eight. He threw 90 pitches in shades of an April 26 win at Toronto when he also gave up two hits over seven innings and allowed one run.

“I think the first-pitch strike efficiency, he’s flooding the (strike) zone, I thought he and (catcher) Will (Smith) were in lock-step tonight,” Roberts said. “The curveball, the slider, the changeup, all the secondaries, knew when to throw the two-seamer and just kept those guys off balance all night.”

Stone had previously recorded seven strikeouts three times this season, including a June 26 complete-game shutout against the Chicago White Sox.

“Getting ahead was definitely key,” Stone said. “They are a team that swings a lot. … (Smith) did a great job calling pitches so I just leaned on him and he was great.”

Turner managed a third-inning ground out against Stone and had one of the two hits against the right-hander with a fifth-inning single to right-center field.

Lux’s home run came against red-hot Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo, who had allowed just one hit through six innings. Lux’s ninth home run, and third in his past seven games, came with one out.

After Will Smith was hit by a pitch to end Woo’s night, Muncy hit a pitch off of former Dodgers right-hander Yimi Garcia into the Mariners’ bullpen in right field for his 10th of the season.

“(Woo) was not necessarily the easiest guy to come back against and that’s definitely one of the best fastballs in baseball,” Muncy said. “And our whole team was saying so. I wouldn’t say the timing felt great. I had a couple of decent at-bats, got a good ball in play and I’d call that a win.”

Part of Muncy’s lengthy delay in returning was due to a lower rib that kept popping out of place just as he was feeling better. Scans and examinations finally identified the problem, leading to a trip to the chiropractor.