Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Behind another fantastic outing by Josh Beckett, the Dodgers rebounded from last night’s frustrating loss in San Diego.
The offense was good enough against Tyson Ross, who is really good at home. Hanley Ramirez had two RBIs and Dee Gordon walked twice, got a hit and stole his MLB-leading 39th base.
But the real story was Beckett. He was dominant against an, admittedly, bad Padres’ offense. He threw seven scoreless innings, allowed four hits, walked two and struck out a season-high-tying eight. Beckett lowered his ERA to 2.28, good for third-best in the National League. He’s pitching his way to a berth on the NL All-Star team at this rate.
Like every other day that ends in “y,” the bullpen was again an issue. Paul Maholm, who is inexplicably still on the active roster, started the eighth inning and allowed a hit, a walk and was charged with two runs. Brandon League relieved him and allowed two hits of his own.
Kenley Jansen got a shot a redemption from last night’s disaster by holding the Padres scoreless — a big feat for this bullpen these days.
The Dodgers (41-35) and Padres (32-43) conclude their series on Sunday afternoon, as Hyun-Jin Ryu (8-3, 3.18 ERA) takes on old friend Eric Stults (2-9, 5.76). With a lefty going, expect Andre Ethier to get the day off. It’d be nice if Yasiel Puig got a day or two off (for his ailing hip), but that probably won’t happen. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m. Pacific.
