Led by Gonsolin, LA first to blank Mets in '22

LOS ANGELES -- If you had to guess who would be the National League ERA leader two months into the season, Tony Gonsolin probably isn’t the first name that would have sprung to mind. He likely wouldn’t have even been the first Dodgers pitcher to come to mind.

But baseball can be gloriously unpredictable, and with six scoreless innings against the Mets on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Gonsolin lowered his ERA to 1.59, 0.22 points better than No. 2 on the list, the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara (1.81). Gonsolin provided the bulk of the work in the Dodgers’ 2-0 win over the Mets, who were the last remaining team in MLB to not be shut out this year.

“It’s confidence,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of what’s made Gonsolin so good in 2022. “That’s the thing that you can see more than anything. I think he’s expecting to go close to three times through the lineup. He’s expecting himself to go deeper in the game. [He’s] expecting, if there’s some stress, that he’s going to find a way to get out of it.”

New York, which entered this series as the only team in the NL with a better winning percentage than Los Angeles, provided the biggest test Gonsolin has had this year, with most of his competition so far being sub-.500 clubs. The right-hander passed the test with flying colors, allowing only three total baserunners (two hits, one walk) while striking out five against one of baseball’s top offenses.

"[It's] what he's been doing to the whole league,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “He's a good pitcher. We knew that coming in. He had a lot of different looks, different shapes, and he did what we thought he would do."

Gonsolin’s outing was made all the more impressive by the fact that, in his view, he did not have his best stuff. He noted that he was relying more on his fastball than usual because he was landing his curveball too high and his slider was “not great,” though he used his splitter to put away batters a few times. Of his 89 pitches, Gonsolin threw 55 for strikes, and he kept hitters off-balance, matching a season high with a 37 percent called-swing-plus-whiff percentage.

“It’s a good feeling that I can go out there without my best stuff and rely on the defense and let them make great plays like they always do and just go out there and throw strikes,” Gonsolin said.

Gonsolin did, in fact, get some help from his defense. Cody Bellinger had a couple of nice grabs in center field, while Chris Taylor had the standout catch of the night, a sliding snare of a sinking liner off the bat of Starling Marte in the fourth. Originally ruled a trap, the call was overturned on review.

“Tony was pitching outstanding, so obviously we want to pick him up any way we can when he’s going, try to make every play for him,” Taylor said. “He’s fun to play behind right now.”

This was Gonsolin’s 10th start of the year, and he’s yet to allow more than two earned runs in an outing. It was also his fourth consecutive six-inning start. With Walker Buehler and Julio Urías each struggling in their most recent starts, as well as on a couple of other occasions this year, it’s fair to say Gonsolin has been the Dodgers’ most consistent starter in 2022.

“He’s really good,” said shortstop Trea Turner, who extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a sixth-inning double. “The stuff’s always been there, [his] career numbers are really good. It’s a matter of just going deeper into games, and he’s certainly doing that. I think the talent’s there, and I think it’s that experience that’s going to be really big for us. He’s been consistent, he’s kept us in games -- the [6-0] record shows that he’s done that -- and more of that from him is going to be needed down the road.”