Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
What just happened? The Dodgers beat the Angels at their place, which is rare enough, but Dan Haren pitched … a gem. Haren actually carried a perfect game through 5.1 innings before Hank Conger broke it up with a single. And he got in trouble that inning, giving up a solid hit-and-run single to center to the next batter, but was bailed out by Yasiel Puig.
For the game, Haren went 7.1 innings, allowing three hits, walking none, and striking out four. He was backed by great Dee-fense (amirite?) at second base. Dee had a shaky start to the year defensively, but he’s slowly showing signs of being a plus defender.
J.P. Howell entered in relief of Haren with a runner on first and promptly surrendered a hit, after which Brandon League relieved him and escaped the inning with only a sacrifice fly being charged to Haren.
Then Kenley Jansen entered to face the part of the lineup he should’ve faced the other game: 1-2-3. And we got everything we wanted out of it. Kenley allowed a lead-off single to Kole Calhoun, who promptly stole second base. Then came the great match-up against Mike Trout. Kenley fell behind 3-0 but made his way back by pitching up in the zone to Trout, fighting back to strike him out. Albert Pujols then flew out to Puig in center, who threw a one-bounce strike to keep Calhoun at second. The game then ended with Josh Hamilton striking out on a cutter that seemed to be at his head level.
So while I may die in a hurricane tomorrow or next week, at least I got to watch that glorious game.
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As for the other side of things, the offense got started with Matt Kemp, homering AGAIN on a no-doubter to left.
“DEEZ NUTZ” – Matt Kemp, probably.
It also got us hard evidence that rumors of the bubble machine’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
WIN WIN WIN
