CHICAGO — Gavin Stone found himself in uncharted territory Wednesday night, on the mound in the eighth inning of a game for the first time in 19 big-league starts. But as the Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander completed another one-two-three inning, there was no one warming up in the team’s right-field bullpen.

This game belonged to Stone, and the 25-year-old from Lake City, Ark., sealed the deal, throwing his first major league shutout to lead the Dodgers to a 4-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox before a sellout crowd of 36,225 in Guaranteed Rate Field.

Stone blanked the White Sox on four hits, striking out seven and walking none, to improve to 9-2 with a 2.73 ERA in 15 starts on the season. He needed only 103 pitches, 73 of them strikes, to throw the Dodgers’ first shutout since Walker Buehler blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 25, 2022.

Shohei Ohtani hit his National League-leading 25th home run in the first inning, Freddie Freeman keyed a three-run third with a two-run double, and Miguel Rojas doubled in the fourth and bunted for single in the seventh, improving the Dodgers’ record to 24-0 in games in which the veteran infielder gets a hit.

It marked the fifth time in his last 11 starts that Stone pitched at least seven innings, giving the Dodgers much-needed length after six relievers combined to throw seven shutout innings in Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the White Sox.

“When he takes the mound, you feel like he can go six or seven innings — that’s refreshing for me, especially when you look at where our bullpen is at,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “He’s sneakily been a guy that I’ve counted on, and has really performed. All the credit goes to him and the pitching coaches.”

Stone bounced between triple-A and the big leagues in 2023, going 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA in eight games–four of them starts — for the Dodgers, but the 25-year-old has been one of the team’s top two starters along with Tyler Glasnow this season.

Roberts likes to cite the three C’s when describing the difference between Stone’s shaky major league debut season and his dominant 2024: confidence, consistency and conviction.

“The biggest [thing] is he can throw a strike when he needs to, whether it’s strike one, whether it’s 2-and-0 to get back into the count, whatever the situation, he can throw a strike,” Roberts said. “And what that does is it kind of gets control of an at-bat, and it minimizes damage, and he’s done all that.”

Ohtani gave the Dodgers another early lead with his second straight leadoff homer, driving a full-count cut-fastball from White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde 437 feet to right-center field. The 114-mph laser gave Ohtani an RBI in his 10th straight game, a franchise record.

...continued

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.