Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers beat the Phillies tonight, 9-4, in the series opener thanks to an explosive offensive showing and Julio Urias keeping the Dodgers in the game in his emergency start. The Dodgers are now 12-9 after the All-Star break and 4-3 in the post-Yasiel Puig era.
The offense was explosive early against kinda sorta old friend Zach Eflin. In the first inning, Corey Seager hit a big fly to right center for the first run.
That was Seager’s 20th homer of the season, which set the record for Dodgers shortstops. He’s a rookie.
New LA Dodgers record for home runs by a SS for Corey Seager (20).
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 9, 2016
Justin Turner followed the homer with a double, and Josh Reddick walked to put runners on first and second with one down. Adrian Gonzalez then singled home Turner for the second run of the game. Yasmani Grandal then walked to load the bases, and Joc Pederson finished off an excellent at-bat by going the other way in the gap for a double to score Reddick and A-Gon for four runs.
Rob Segedin then capped off an explosive inning with a sacrifice fly to right to get the Dodgers their fifth run early.
Thankfully, they didn’t stop there, and in the second inning Chase Utley welcome his old team back with a solo shot for run number six…
…and in the third inning, Grandal hit an absolute bomb over the Phillies bullpen in right for run number seven.
The Dodgers were then surprisingly quiet from innings 4-6, but in the seventh they struck again behind Seager’s second homer of the night for the eighth run.
Seager … seriously … MVP?
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/762865911652954112
In the ninth, the Dodgers tacked on more insurance after back-to-back doubles from Grandal and Joc led to the team’s ninth run and the final tally for the game.
In total, the offense scored nine runs on 11 hits (four doubles, four homers) and two walks. Efficient scoring for once.
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But let’s talk about Urias, because he’s actually good and everybody who thinks otherwise based on what we’re seen so far is an idiot. Urias pitched five innings today on 88 pitches, and gave up one earned run (three runs) on five hits and two walks. Solid start and the Dodgers were always cruising, so nothing to do complain about, right? Wrong.
All three of those runs came in a comical third inning, which included a pitcher doubling under Turner’s glove after the ball hit the bag, an infield single in which Seager went after the lead runner and couldn’t get him, and a bases-loaded double-play ball hit back to Urias that he threw away for two runs. Predictably, that led to calls of him being a bust, which … why?
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/762855261807652864
BUT WHAT ABOUT GETTING OTHER PITCHERS
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/762856113943384065
WHY WON’T OTHER TEAMS TRADE THE DODGERS CHEAP LEFTY ACES FOR A SINGLE PROSPECT
THIS SOUNDS REASONABLE
Sorry.
Anyway, J.P. Howell and Josh Fields (HMMM) got scoreless innings for the Dodgers in the sixth and seventh without allowing a baserunner. Pedro Baez, unfortunately, gave up a solo homer in the eighth for the Phillies’ fourth run. Josh Ravin, fresh off a comeback from both a broken arm and a PED suspension, got a scoreless ninth to complete the win.
If you’re a worry wart like me and need something to fret about, monitor Grandal’s performance. After a monster July and hitting even better in August, he took a direct shot to the problematic right shoulder again.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/762874759923109888
I’m worried, but we’ll see.
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With the victory, the Dodgers improve to 63-49 overall and 36-21 at home. The Giants won in extra innings, so their NL West lead is still 1 game. But hey, at least this happened.
#PoseySlide. https://t.co/UJm2VDfeJd pic.twitter.com/etIHrtvVk2
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) August 9, 2016
In promising news nobody wants to think about right now but is still relevant, the Dodgers are now 4 games up on both the Marlins (loss) and Cardinals (win) for both home-field advantage and to make the playoffs in the NL Wild Card race.
The Dodgers get the Phillies again tomorrow night at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST, and the pitching matchup will be the best of the series with Kenta Maeda (3.22 ERA/3.45 FIP/3.83 DRA) matching up against Vincent Velasquez (3.33 ERA/3.51 FIP/4.27 DRA).
