Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Last night the Dodgers clinched the NL West and celebrated. Tonight they played like they clinched the NL West and celebrated the day before in a 7-3 loss to the Orioles.
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I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising, really. John Means has been quite good this year and limited the Dodgers to two runs over 6.1 innings. Both of those runs came in the 6th following an A.J. Pollock two-run shot, his 14th of the year.
They then managed to tack on only one more against the Orioles pen with it coming in the 9th on a Matt Beaty single to give them three runs, though it didn’t mean much by then since they were still trailing by four.
They were trailing by four because of the pen in a pen game, oddly enough. Ross Stripling started and gave up just one run over three, then Dustin May took over and got a promising two shutout frames.
But the presumptuous relief ace Joe Kelly gave up a run in the 6th and Caleb Ferguson (who looked great recently) gave up three on a homer in the 7th while getting only an out before Yimi Garcia had to come in and complete his frame. Adam Kolarek also ended up giving up two runs (one earned) on a homer in the 8th while getting just one out, before Dylan Floro closed the book on the Orioles with two outs of his own.
Not great!
Honest to god, I don’t care that much how they play (especially today), as it’s been proven that doesn’t have a ton of bearing on the playoffs. However, the injuries are a real concern and seem to be piling up.
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The victory gets the Dodgers to 94-53 on the year, which is a 104-win pace. With the NL West wrapped up, they lead the NL by 3 games over the Braves and trail the Yankees by 1.5 games for the best record in baseball.
The Dodgers go for the series in in the rubber match tomorrow at 1:15 PM HST/4:15 PM PST/7:15 PM EST on FOX. Rich Hill will come off the DL to make his first start since June and he’ll be facing Dylan Bundy.
