Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers fell to the Marlins 2-0 tonight for their third straight loss and securing their second series loss of the season no matter what happens tomorrow. This happened primarily because the offense was a pathetic mush of routine ground balls and fly balls.
The attempt to rally in the eighth inning only served to piss me off even more, and the Dodgers have now fallen to 12-10 on the season and 4-5 at home.
—–
Scott Kazmir has been very bad this year, so I completely understand why people were freaking out after he allowed two runs to the Marlins in the first inning. Everybody was sick of it. However, those two runs came on four singles, three of the ground ball finding a hole variety and one a shattered bat flare over shortstop. It truly was quite unfortunate.
Over the next five frames, Kazmir allowed just a couple of flare singles, a fly ball single on a routine play that Trayce Thompson again somehow botched, a walk, and a hit by pitch, shutting down the Marlins offense. So as unlucky as the start to this game was for Kazmir, he still finished only allowing two runs over six innings on 113 pitches. He struck out six, hit one batter, walked a batter, and gave up seven hits on the night.
Adam Liberatore entered and gave up a single but nothing else in the seventh. Then Pedro Baez followed with a scoreless inning of his own in which he allowed only an understandable walk to Giancarlo Stanton. Joe Blanton completed the trio of scoreless bullpen frames with a perfect inning.
Honestly though, nothing that happened after the first inning mattered.
Marlins starter Justin Nicolino made his 2016 debut today, and he absolutely pooped on this lineup over 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball. Nicolino only struck out two, but allowed just two hits and two walks as the Dodgers never really threatened while facing him.
Bryan Morris came on in relief of him in the seventh for whatever reason and proceeded to walk pinch-hitter Chase Utley on four pitches and that was it for his night. Cody Ege then entered and proceeded to walk pinch-hitter Yasmani Grandal on five pitches, which was the end of the night for him as well. David Phelps was next in line and he also faced a pinch-hitter in Joc Pederson, who also walked to load the bases and managed to get both Phelps and Don Mattingly ejected after arguing balls and strikes.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/725546197398622209
Unfortunately, I was right, as Jose Urena entered and promptly got Yasiel Puig to strikeout and Adrian Gonzalez to fly out to end the threat and basically seal the loss. The Dodgers went quietly in the ninth because why not?
—–
The Dodgers finish up the four-game series against the Marlins tomorrow at 7:10 PST/10:10 EST with Kenta Maeda going to the mound against Jose Fernandez.
It’s exactly what a struggling Dodgers offense needs!
=====
Notes
–Dee Gordon does Puig’s finger wag at him.
–Howie Kendrick‘s OPS is now .303.
-Puig’s 0-for-4 continues his struggles.
