MIAMI – Rookie Ryan Pepiot pitched a perfect game for 6 2/3 innings as Julio Urías’ replacement in the Dodgers’ rotation, and Los Angeles routed the Miami Marlins 10-0 on Thursday night for just their second win seven games.
Josh Bell grounded a single up the middle with two outs in the seventh for the only hit off Pepiot. Caleb Ferguson allowed Garrett Hampson’s leadoff single in the eighth and Evan Phillips finished the two-hitter with a perfect ninth.
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“There’s a little bit of disappointment because, obviously, you want to have one of those special moments,” Pepiot said. “But it’s baseball. The guy got on base and hit a good pitch. Anything can happen in the game.”
Pepiot (3-0) was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City before the game to take the place of Urías, who was put on the restricted list following his arrest Sunday in Los Angeles on suspicion of corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant. A 26-year-old right-hander starting his third stint with the Dodgers this season, Pepiot struck out three and induced nine groundouts, throwing 60 of 84 pitches for strikes.
“It was the fifth inning, nobody was talking to me anymore. Then I looked up and I saw the zero,” Pepiot said of when he became aware of the perfect-game bid. “Everyone was sliding by me and then no one would sit near me.”
Chris Taylor had five RBIs that included his 15th home run, a double and a single. Miguel Rojas and Will Smith had three hits each.
“The way we started the series and how we’ve played the past few games, we found ourselves offensively today,” Rojas said. “It made it very satisfying.”
Bell’s single helped Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decide to lift Pepiot.
“I was going to give him every opportunity to finish that game,” Roberts said. “He’s big. He’s physical. I didn’t have trainers telling me to take him out of the game.”
Miami, which had won six straight, dropped a half-game behind Arizona for the NL’s last wild card, tied with Cincinnati. The Marlins were shut out for the 11th time.
“That’s why this game is crazy,” Miami manager Skip Schumaker said. “Just when you think you have it figured out, it just punches you right in the mouth.”
Los Angeles pitched its 14th shutout, one behind Atlanta’s major league-leading total.
Marlins starter Braxton Garrett (8-6) allowed one run, three hits, three walks and a hit batter in 3 2/3 innings.
Will Smith hit an RBI single in the third, and Taylor singled in a run in a two-run fifth that included Kiké Hernández’s run-scoring double.
Freddie Freeman doubled down the right-field line in the sixth. Th ball bounced into foul territory, where a ball person grabbed it and threw the ball in the stands. Umpires determined Mookie Betts had rounded third and allowed him to score.
Amed Rosario hit a two-run single and Taylor an RBI double.
Taylor added a three-tun homer in the eighth off Smeltzer.
DEFENSIVE GEMS
Pepiot was aided by his defense. Shortstop Rojas dived and stopped Luis Arraez’s hard smash and threw out Arraez at first. Second baseman Rosario also denied Arraez of a hit when he made a leaping catch of his liner in the seventh.
“You feel happy trying to help the team any way you can and making that type of play,” Rosario said.
FROM THE COURT TO THE MOUND
Recently retired Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem threw the ceremonial first pitch. The 43-year-old played his entire 20-year NBA career in Miami.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Marlins: RHP Sandy Alcantara will travel with the club on its seven-game trip to Philadelphia and Milwaukee after being placed on the injured list because of a right forearm strain Wednesday.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: RHP Emmet Sheehan (3-1, 5.31) will start the opener of a three game series at Washington Friday. The Nationals will go with LHP MacKenzie Gore (7-10, 4.28).
Marlins: RHP Eury Pérez (5-4, 2.86) is the scheduled starter of the opener of a three-game series at Philadelphia, which starts LHP Christopher Sánchez (2-3, 3.48).
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