Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers found themselves down by three runs heading into the late innings against the Cubs tonight, but they rallied back behind some hilarious Cubs defense and late offensive heroics to take home a 4-3 victory.
The Dodgers have now won nine of their last 10 and five in a row.
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After a nice bounceback start last time out, Tyler Anderson took the mound tonight and got off on the right foot, retiring 12 of the first 13 batters he faced. However, in the 5th, he was greeted by a lead-off homer from Nico Hoerner to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. That was the first homer he allowed on the changeup all year.
While he bounced back with three outs to end the inning, the 6th was even more of a struggle, as it started with a lined single, then a bunt single, and after a wild pitch advanced both runners, they both scored on a Ian Happ double to left that made it 3-0 to the Cubs.
After a sacrifice bunt/failed bunt for a hit attempt advanced him to third, Happ was then thrown out at home on a comebacker and weirdly tried to run Anderson over. Either way, Anderson got out of the 6th without further mess.
Anderson actually pitched better than his line, mainly running into sequencing issues: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 94 Pitches.
Well, the reason there’s been no updates on the other end is because Keegan Thompson was keeping the Dodgers offense quiet.
Of course, there was an early chance after a clean 1st, as the 2nd started with a single, walk, and later a hit-by-pitch with one out. However, the Dodgers squandered this chance and actually made 13 straight outs from the time they loaded the bases.
That streak ended in the 6th with two outs after Freddie Freeman doubled, and hilariously the shutout ended one batter later when Will Smith seemed to routinely fly out to Seiya Suzuki in right, but for whatever reason the ball bonked off his glove for a run to cut the Cubs lead to 3-1. That actually knocked Thompson out of the game.
The Cubs pen got out of the 6th, but in the 7th the lead was cut to one when Jake Lamb went yard. Gavin Lux later tripled with two down but was also stranded.
For the Dodgers pen, it was Yency Almonte in the 8th, and he made things quick by getting the side in order on just five pitches. Caleb Ferguson followed in the 9th and got a clean inning himself on just seven pitches, including a three-pitch strikeout.
That bought enough time for the lineup, who stranded a walk in the 8th but then started a rally in the 9th. A Justin Turner single got things off on the right foot, and despite the worst call ever, Lamb then followed with a walk.
With Cody Bellinger up, he grounded a ball to second, but beat out the double play turn with his speed to corner the runners. After stolen base by Bellinger, Lux then drew a walk to load the bases. Battling with an 0-2 count, Mookie Betts then just missed a walk-off grand slam to hit a game-tying sacrifice fly instead. The Dodgers couldn’t capitalize further, however, and into extras we went at 3-3.
The 10th began with Evan Phillips and of course the Manfred Runner at second, but he induced back-to-back comebackers that only advanced the runner to third. Phillips then seemingly got a routine grounder to Zach McKinstry to end it, but he spiked the throw into the ground and Freddie made an incredible dig to keep things tied.
Well, after that the Dodgers seemed setup well in the 10th with Trea Turner as the Manfred Runner. Freddie was intentionally walked to start things, and Smith came through despite being down in the count, rifling a single to left for the walk off.
He ended up half naked and it looked like some guys wanted the pants.
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The Dodgers improve to 54-29 on the year and maintain a 6-game lead over the Padres in the NL West.
The third game of the four-game series will be the same time at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET with Clayton Kershaw looking to make his case for an All-Star Game appearance against Marcus Stroman returning from injury.
