Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
There was ample opportunity to score tonight, but Jerome Williams wouldn’t let the Dodgers do so in their 6-2 loss to the Phillies.
The Dodgers got seven hits and coaxed three walks out of Williams in his five innings of work, but they scored just one run. The problems began in the third inning, when Alex Wood and Jimmy Rollins had a single and ground-rule double to start the inning. Howie Kendrick would ground out, Adrian Gonzalez would strike out and Yasmani Grandal would ground out. No runs. It was even worse in the fourth, when the Dodgers loaded the bases with no outs. Alex Guerrero came up and struck out on three pitches. Kind of hard to call him the goat of the night (as you’ll see shortly), but he was awful tonight ( ). Wood would then, inexplicably, swing at the first pitch and ground into an inning-ending double play. Sure, he hit it hard, but it went for naught.
Speaking of Wood, his Dodger debut was better than the box score would indicate, but there were also some hiccups. His final line: 6 1/3 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 109 pitches, 71 strikes.
I thought Wood was done after 94 pitches in six innings — it would have made some sense to get him out on a high note considering he wasn’t particularly sharp. He was beaten by some less-than-hard-hit balls, but his command wasn’t where it needs to be, either.
Instead, Don Mattingly ran him out for the seventh inning, which is where the real trouble began. Carlos Ruiz singled and Domonic Brown grounded out. Runner at second base, one out — no big deal, right? Well, Mattingly called for an intentional walk of Cesar Hernandez. Yes, that Cesar Hernandez. Wait, what Cesar Hernandez? Exactly. Then, something really odd happened.
This is a small part of a much larger thing but Vines are only allowed to be 6 seconds so https://t.co/ZOoCmP4LOz
— Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs) August 5, 2015
Oops. After a long and confusing (for some reason) delay, it was correctly called a balk. Rule 8.01(d):
“A ball which slips out of a pitchers hand and crosses the foul line shall be called a ball; otherwise it will be called no pitch. This would be a balk with men on base.”
Wood proceeded to (finally) walk Odubel Herrera, which brought up Maikel Franco and brought in Joel Peralta.
This isn’t going to end well.
Literally everyone on Twitter questioned the decision to bring in Peralta before as it happened. Turns out literally everyone was right.
Bases loaded one out is precisely why they traded for Jim Johnson in the first place
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) August 5, 2015
Pretty much. That made it 5-1. Each team would add a run to make the final 6-2.
Oh, this was Jimmy Rollins’ return to Philadelphia. Phillies’ fans welcomed him accordingly (seriously).
The Dodgers fall to 60-46 on the season. The Giants won, so LA’s lead in the NL West is back to two games. Brett Anderson (5-6, 3.14 ERA) takes on old friend Aaron Harang (5-11, 3.97) on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Pacific.
