Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
In yet another marathon game, the Dodgers clinched their three-game series with the Diamondbacks with an 8 to 6 victory, despite striking out sixteen times in the process.
The scoring opened on this laser by Matt Kemp on a Trevor Cahill sinker that didn’t sink:
GIF Link
It’s probably a bad idea to miss there to him. Kemp went on to strike out three times, but let’s just remember this plate appearance instead.
Beyond Kemp, the offense was led by Dee Gordon, who had one of the best games of his career. Dee went 1-for-3, but walked twice (doubling his season total). More importantly, he stole four bases, including one that occurred without a pitch (GIF via Chad):
Gordon is just the sixth player in franchise history to steal four bases in one game (though stolen base numbers are a bit iffy beyond the 50s). The last Dodgers to accomplish the feat was Rafael Furcal on September 15th, 2007. Davey Lopes did it five times.
The Dodgers appeared to put the game away in the third inning. The inning started in a frustrating fashion, with Dan Haren grounding out to right fielder Gerardo Parra. After that, the Dodgers tacked on four runs, started by Dee Gordon’s walk and two steals. Yasiel Puig walked and (hilariously) stole second. Hanley Ramirez drove in Gordon with the highest Baltimore Chop you’ll ever see, then Adrian Gonzalez drove them home with a home run, his fourth in the last four games. Gonzalez went 7-for-13 with three homers during the series, and was one of the main reasons why the Dodgers swept the Diamondbacks. After all was said and done, Cahill made 43 pitches and the Dodgers batted around.
Despite the early scoring, the game didn’t ever feel out of reach for the Diamondbacks. Haren looked very shaky today, throwing 110 pitches in 5-2/3 innings. He struck out five batters and walked just one, but he allowed a lot of hard contact, which led to ten hits, six of which went for extra bases. He was constantly pitching from behind in the count (starting the start with five straight three-ball counts), but with a bit of luck he only allowed three runs.
Even after the Dodgers re-expanded their lead to five runs, Jamey Wright made the game interesting yet again again. After allowing a three-run homer to Mark Trumbo, he allowed the next two batters to reach base before finally recording the final out in the seventh inning. J.P. Howell, Chris Perez, and Kenley Jansen (who was again throwing in the upper 90s) put an end to the scoring, securing the sweep.
After completing the sweep, the Dodgers have yet another day off. Mercifully, this is the last off-day in a while. Starting Tuesday, the team will play thirteen games in thirteen days, followed by a stretch of sixteen games without a break.
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Carl Crawford missed today’s game due to “right side tightness.” The Dodgers say that it is “nothing serious,” which probably means that he’ll be on the disabled list soon enough. Too many outfielders, etc.
