Ryan Pepiot was perfect through 6 2/3 innings and gave up one hit through seven as the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers avoided a three-game sweep with a 10-0 victory Thursday against the Miami Marlins.
Pepiot was added to the Dodgers‘ roster earlier Thursday to fill the rotation spot of left-hander Julio Urias, who is on administrative leave after he was arrested earlier this week on charges of felony domestic violence.
The Marlins saw their first 20 batters retired in succession before Josh Bell ended Pepiot’s bid at perfection with a clean ground-ball single to center field with two outs in the seventh. Pepiot then struck out Jazz Chisholm Jr. as Miami saw its six-game winning streak come to an end.
In seven innings, Pepiot (2-0) struck out three in his longest outing over 13 major league appearances in two seasons. Left-hander Caleb Ferguson gave up a hit in a scoreless eighth inning and right-hander Evan Phillips worked a scoreless ninth.
Pepiot was trying to throw the Dodgers‘ first no-hitter since a combined effort in May 2018 that was started by Walker Buehler. The only perfect game in Dodgers history was thrown by Sandy Koufax in September 1965.
Chris Taylor paced the Dodgers‘ offense with a home run and five RBIs, while Amed Rosario drove in two runs. Freddie Freeman had an RBI double in the sixth inning to tie a Dodgers franchise record with his 52nd double of the season. Taylor, Will Smith and Miguel Rojas each had three hits.
Smith gave the Dodgers (85-54) a 1-0 lead in the third inning with an RBI single and Taylor made it 2-0 in the fifth with his own run-scoring single. Enrique Hernandez added an RBI double in the fifth.
After Freeman’s RBI double gave Los Angeles a 4-0 lead, Rosario added a two-run single later in the sixth. Taylor had an RBI double in the sixth for a 7-0 lead and a three-run home run in the eighth to make it 10-0. It was Taylor’s second home run of the series and 15th of the season.
The Marlins (72-68) were held in check after hitting seven home runs in the first two games of the series and outscoring the Dodgers 17-7 in those contests.
Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett (8-6) gave up a run over 3 2/3 innings to take the loss.
—Field Level Media
