Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Proving me right, even if it is just in a simulation, David Price continued to look like much more than a throw-in to the Connor Wong trade. Price scattered a mere three hits and a walk across eight innings with eighth strikeouts on Saturday. The only blemish came on a solo homer by Trent Grisham to lead off the ninth.
With the lead down to 4-1, Dave Robots made the move to Kenley Jansen. Jansen allowed a pair of hits, but closed out the victory with a 14-pitch inning. The Dodgers’ closer struck out one while his ERA remained 5.02.
“We’ll kick back tonight, then get set for the next one,” said Price, the new owner of the San Diego Padres after allowing just two runs in 15 innings against the team this week.
The Padres sunk to 18-21 after dropping seven straight, with the Dodgers (22-16) responsible for four of those losses.
While Price was cruising along, the Dodgers offense struggled to put much on the board against Joey Lucchesi. Matching Price’s shutout heading into the sixth, Lucchesi finally relented due to Manny Machado’s poor defense. Committing his third error of the year, Machado’s mistake on a ball hit by Chris Taylor allowed Price to score the game’s first run. Mookie Botts pushed the second run of the day across a batter later before Lucchesi could get out of the sixth.
Matrix Muncy led off the seventh with a home run, his seventh of the year, off of Lucchesi. The Padres starter worked through two more outs before finishing his day with six hits and three runs allowed. Just two Dodgers struck out against Lucchesi in his 6 2/3 IP.
Code Bellinger added an insurance run with two away in the eighth with a solo shot off of Drew Pomeranz.
The Dodgers will go for the sweep on Sunday, sending out the struggling Alex Wood against the Padres’ Zach Davies. It would seem like this should be Wood’s last shot before getting a break from the rotation given the Dodgers’ depth, but who knows given Robots’ management of the pitching staff.
