Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Another debut from a Dodgers prospect, another big day, and another win. This time a 3-0 shutout of the Giants behind Miguel Vargas and Julio Urias.
The Dodgers have now won seven of their last eight, four in a row, and seven straight against their rivals.
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Alex Cobb started the game for the Giants and did well to avoid the big damage.
Still, the scoring got started in the 2nd, surely in the way everybody thought before the season, with a Trayce Thompson walk and steal, then Vargas making his MLB debut and working his way back from 0-2 to 2-2 and then drilling a ball into the right-center field gap for a double and a 1-0 lead. He then stole third because … why not? He didn’t score, but what a showing.
That was a homer at home.
The Dodgers added to that lead in the 4th behind a Max Muncy single, Trayce walk, both advancing on a dribbler in front of the plate, and then Vargas stepping up again and hitting what was somehow ruled an infield single to third that Muncy beat out at home for a 2-0 lead.
Immediately after that, Cobb settled in for nine in a row, but with one-out in the 7th gave up a clean single to James Outman and was relieved.
Immediately the Giants relief corps was victimized, starting with an Austin Barnes hit-and-run single to corner the runners and then Mookie Betts driving a fly ball to right for a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
The Dodgers weren’t able to add anything more against the pen in the final two frames.
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All of this was going on while Urias continued his dominant run. He started this game by retiring 11 in a row before giving up a two-out double in the 4th. He got out of that, then worked around a two-out single in the 5th and the first real trouble in the 6th behind a two-out infield single and then another single.
Still, Urias was generally cruising along, but then the 7th happened. A single was followed by an infield single hit to Gavin Lux that he lost in the exchange while trying to make a charging play, and then a soft liner to short ate up Trea Turner for another single to load the bases and knock Julio out of the game.
Still, he was excellent: 6 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 96 Pitches.
That zero in his line was thanks to Evan Phillips, who for the second game in a row worked out of a bases-loaded and nobody-out jam. This time he took all of six pitches, carving Dixon Machado for the first out and then getting a fly-ball double play.
Yency Almonte played setup man and continued his great run in the 8th, hitting a batter (barely) but getting through a scoreless frame.
That set things up for Craig Kimbrel in the 9th, and he got a first out that was a homer in 14 stadiums, issued a walk that should’ve been a strikeout a pitch before, gave up a single past a diving Trea, and then hit a batter to load the bases. However, he rebounded with an infield pop and then closed the game out emphatically with a strikeout.
Never worried.
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Dave Roberts and Justin Turner will make Joey Gallo great again.
Joe Davis talks about Luis Gonzalez learning English from That’s So Raven, then breaks out into the theme song.
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The Dodgers improve to 71-33 on the year, a 111-win pace.
| Team | Chase | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Yankees | MLB | 2 Up |
| Mets | NL | 5 Up |
| Padres | NL West | 11.5 Up |
The sweep will be on the line early tomorrow as the series concludes at 9:45 AM HT/12:45 PM PT/3:45 PM ET with Clayton Kershaw facing off against Jakob Junis.
