Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
No offense and a short outing by Brandon McCarthy led to the Dodgers’s 3-1 loss to the Rays on Wednesday afternoon.
Things started off well enough for LA. In the second inning, Joc Pederson walked and moved over to third base on an A.J. Ellis single. With two outs and McCarthy at the plate, Ellis did the unthinkable: He stole second base. A throwing error by catcher Luke Maile allowed Pederson to scamper home and score.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/758388219436085249
A.J. Ellis — yes, that one — stole a base. It was the first of his career. This really should have made it an automatic win for the Dodgers. But, the Dodgers are 0-1 when Ellis steals a base, so he should obviously never swipe a bag ever again.
A.J. Ellis' first career SB was so historic that Clayton Kershaw had the actual bag authenticated and took it into the clubhouse.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) July 27, 2016
McCarthy was rolling through the first 10 batters he faced, and nine of them were retired and he had four strikeouts. While he ended up getting all three outs via the strikeout in the fourth inning, he also allowed a double to Brad Miller, a 2-run home run to future Dodger Evan Longoria, a walk to Steven Souza and an RBI double to Maile. He also intentionally walked Kevin Kiermaier. That made the score 3-1 and chased McCarthy from the contest. His line:
- 4 IP, 4 H, 3 R/ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR, 83 pitches, 51 strikes, 1/3 GO/AO
It was a pretty lackluster game overall. Matt Moore was good (6 2/3 IP, 4 H, 1/0 R/ER, 4 BB, 5 K), but not spectacular. The Dodgers had just five hits overall, while the Rays had eight.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, something happened that hasn’t happened since 2013: Howie Kendrick popped out to an infielder. It took a catch that resulted in this from the Rays’ Logan Morrison to make it so:
Logan Morrison of the #Rays making a catch in the seats. pic.twitter.com/76q3WCUd7Q
— Jon SooHoo (@JonSooHooPics) July 27, 2016
And in moving picture form (via Kevin Full):
The Dodgers fell to 57-45 with the loss. They’re still 2 1/2 games behind the Giants thanks in large part to another future Dodger in Jay Bruce, whose home run off Madison Bumgarner in the seventh inning was the difference.
After a day off Thursday, the Dodgers welcome the Diamondbacks in for a 3-game weekend set. Kenta Maeda (3.25 ERA, 3.46 FIP) will be opposed by Zack Godley (5.88 ERA, 4.37 FIP). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific time.
