Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
For the second straight night, the Dodgers and the D-backs wrestled in extra innings. The Dodgers once again came out on top, securing the series win with a 6-4 victory in the desert.
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Clayton Kershaw came into the game with a 1.50 ERA, but he didn’t have his best stuff at Chase Field Wednesday night. His fastball command was lost in a shaky three-run 2nd. He still kept the Dodgers in the game despite some shoddy defense behind him.
Mookie wasted no time with a leadoff solo dong to center field, his 14th of the season.
Taylor Clarke continued to struggle in the first inning, allowing a single to Chris Taylor and a walk to Max Muncy after the Betts homer. The Dodgers couldn’t cash in anymore runs, but they made Clarke work to a tune of 24 pitches.
Enrique Hernandez, wearing No. 21 on Roberto Clemente Day, hit another solo home run for the Dodgers in the top of the 2nd.
The D-backs came back and scored three runs off Kershaw in the most frustrating fashion in the bottom of the 2nd. The Snakes loaded the bases with nobody out against Kersh with a bunt single, a single off the bag, a dropped double play ball and a walk. Arizona didn’t waste the opportunity. A Carson Kelly scoring groundout and a Jon Jay sac fly later, and the slate was clean.
Old friend Tim Locastro tripled to center field to give the D-backs a 3-2 lead.
Max Muncy and AJ Pollock hit consecutive singles to open the 4th. Will Smith drew a walk to load the bases with nobody out, and the tying run came in on a Gavin Lux force out. Hernandez’s RBI single gave the Dodgers a 4-3 lead.
The D-backs tied it back up in the 5th on some uncharacteristically bad defense by Betts in right field. Betts made two errors on one play, one fielding and one throwing. That’s not what you want to do in right field on Roberto Clemente Day.
Speedy Locastro scored on a throw by Betts that was way offline. Somehow it was 4-4 despite three errors by the Dodgers through five innings.
Kershaw went 5 innings and allowed 4 runs (3 earned) with 3 strikeouts and 2 walks on 87 pitches (57 strikes).
The D-backs got the go-ahead run on base in the bottom of the 6th when Adam Kolarek issued a one-out walk to Wyatt Mathisen. Kolarek faced his minimum three batters, and then Dave Roberts went to flamethrower Brusdar Graterol to preserve the tie and get the last out.
Graterol got the job done with one 100-mph sinker, retiring Kelly to end the threat and carry the tie into the late innings.
The Dodgers had a couple of hard hit balls in the 7th vs. Junior Guerra, but they walked away with nothing to show for it.
The D-backs got another two men on base with one out vs. Graterol in the bottom of the 7th. Graterol slipped a bit on his delivery, and he took a few moments to be checked by trainers and make some warmup throws. He bounced back to induce an inning ending double play grounder out of Christian Walker.
Muncy’s two-out walk in the 8th inning was the Dodgers’ first baserunner since the 4th. Muncy went from first to third on AJ Pollock‘s second hit of the night. Guerra pulled the strings on Will Smith, striking him out looking to end the inning. The ball looked outside, but home plate umpire Rob Drake thought otherwise.
Caleb Ferguson got the ball in the 8th and was able to pitch around a leadoff Eduardo Escobar ground-rule double. Jake McGee shut down the D-backs in the bottom of the 9th.
The Dodgers took a 5-4 lead in the 10th when Chris Taylor knocked in Corey Seager who advanced to third on a Kevin Ginkel wild pitch.
Pollock, in familiar territory, dunked in a RBI single to give the Dodgers a 6-4 lead. He had three hits on the night and is now hitting just shy of .300.
Of course Arizona had Locastro at second to start the bottom of the 10th with Blake Treinen on the mound. He got Nick Ahmed out on two pitches and got Walker to fly out. Escobar grounded out to Cody Bellinger at first to give the Dodgers the win.
The Dodgers are now 32-12 on the season, the best record in baseball. They’re 17-5 in away games. They’ve won 21 of their last 26 games and 5-1 in extra-inning games.
Their Magic No. is now down to 12.
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Next up: The Boys in Blue go for the sweep of the last-place D-backs on Thursday. Dustin May (1-1, 2.88 ERA, 4.51 FIP) takes on old foe Madison Bumgarner (0-4, 8.44 ERA, 9.07 FIP) in the series finale. MadBum is having a disastrous year on the mound with Arizona. You just hate to see that. First pitch is at 6:40 PM PST.
