Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers beat the Nationals 3-0 tonight behind a Clayton Kershaw gem and the predictability of Carl Crawford against Jordan Zimmermann.
Both pitchers were on their game today, but that didn’t matter to Crawford, who came into the contest 5-for-13 with two doubles and a walk off Zimmermann in 14 career plate appearances. No surprise then that it was Crawford who got the scoring started in the top of the third with a “single” down the left field line into the corner, one that really should’ve been a double if Crawford knew the ball was fair. Crawford also led off the game with a fly-ball double and a lined out to center in the sixth, now making him 7-for-16 off Zim in his career.
Speaking of the starters having it, Kershaw went 5 1/3 perfect before a Michael Taylor double off the wall in center broke that up. No matter, Kershaw went eight shutout innings and gave up just three hits over 101 pitches. He struck out eight batters and walked none, which seems to be a common K/BB ratio for him nowadays.
Kershaw didn’t do it alone though, as he also got some defensive help on the night.
Still, as alluded to earlier, the offense didn’t do much, as they totaled just six baserunners on the day. But half of those came after Zimmermann exited, as the Dodgers managed to capitalize off Nationals former closer Drew Storen. Storen hit Joc Pederson with one out and then gave up a double to Andre Ethier, which was supposed to score Joc from first. But Joc stopped running after he hit second for … reasons, yet it all worked out because Anthony Rendon made this throw:
That scored two runners as … well apparently that’s the rule?
Rule 7.05 (g) (http://t.co/I87nj2zWXq): 2 bases for thrown ball into the stands https://t.co/L5aSW89dd3
— Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) August 13, 2015
I guess it makes sense since when a fielder makes an error on an overthrow of first, the batter is awarded first and second, right?
In any case, that afforded the Dodgers a bit of breathing room, and Kenley Jansen pitched a 1-2-3 inning on eight pitches and struck out two to close out the game.
Bullpen is a lot better when you only have to use Kenley.
NARRATIVESSS!!!
