Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
At this point, it’s almost predictable. Against the Mets’ sputtering offense, of course Zack Greinke pitched 7 shutout innings, leading the Dodgers to a 4-3 victory. Greinke started out a bit rough, spending 23 of his 100 pitches in the first inning. He also only struck out four batters, which is more of a long-term concern than a short-term one. Still, he was brilliant, only allowing four hits, and his scoreless streak is now up to 27-2/3 innings. His ERA is down to 1.48.
He also did this:
Which was great, but Larry King was not amused.
Larry King was also not amused (probably) when Dodger relievers gave half of the lead back in the eighth and made it even more interesting in the ninth. Yimi Garcia did his job and got the first out of the eighth, but Adam Liberatore and Pedro Baez both didn’t look sharp and allowed the Mets to score a couple of runs in the penultimate frame. Baez remained in to start the ninth (Kenley Jansen threw 24 pitches yesterday and pitched in three of the last four). Baez allowed the first two runners to reach, but then got two (deep) fly balls to Yasiel Puig for consecutive sacrifice flies, which scored the third run of the game. J.P. Howell was brought in to face lefty Curtis Granderson, who mercifully struck out to end the game.
On the other side of the ball, the Dodgers’ “struggling” offense did pretty well against Matt Harvey. Adrian Gonzalez hit his second home run in two nights, one of three runs they scored in five innings against Harvey. Three runs felt a bit light, too, as the Dodgers managed to walk five (!) times against one of the Mets’ aces. Harvey did not seem to be physically well, though, as he was battling a nosebleed for the first few innings. Still, it was an encouraging game for most of the Dodger bats. An insurance run against Alex Torres ended up making the difference.
Also, this happened:
The Dodgers now have a four game lead on the Giants.
Tomorrow’s rubber game features Mets’ starter Steven Matz in his second major league start. He will face Mike Bolsinger, hopefully feeling better after his bout of food poisoning, at 1:10PM PDT.
