Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
It took the Dodgers until the 8th inning of the second game of this series to score a run. So it was a little surprising when Enrique Hernandez took Jon Lester‘s second pitch of today’s game deep to center field.
Lester settled down after that, though. He wound up pitching a complete game, scattering just three additional hits over his nine innings of work. He struck out ten batters and didn’t walk any.
Mike Bolsinger, making his third Major League start of the year, went five innings, allowing two hits, walking two, striking out six and hitting a pair of batters. He was a little shaky at times, like when he opened the game with a HBP and a walk, but it wound up being a fairly solid performance on the whole. The only runs he allowed came on a Kris Bryant two-run home run in the third inning. Bolsinger, who has allowed a home run in each start he’s made so far this year, currently has a HR/FB% of 16.7%, which should stabilize, depending on how long he’s kept around.
Bolsinger exited the game after just 82 pitches, and Pedro Baez took over. For the first time this season, Baez pitched two complete innings, and he was great, retiring all six batters he faced and picking up a pair of strikeouts.
Casey Fien pitched the bottom of the eighth, his third appearance for the Dodgers this year. He continues to be impressive as he struck out the Cubs side (though one of those batters was Lester). He did allow a base hit to Jason Heyward, but it was a fairly weak grounder that just made it through the middle of the infield. On a night when the offense was pretty thoroughly shut down, it’s at least encouraging that the bullpen was, once again, steady.
Tomorrow’s game has an 11:20 AM Pacific start time. The Dodgers will go for the series split behind Julio Urias, making his second Major League start. He’ll face RHP Kyle Hendricks.
