Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers won a game against the Rockies tonight at Satan Field, 4-2, despite getting pasted in the last two games. Yeah, you could look at these three games as losing a series to a division rival, but none of the Dodgers players literally died, so I look at it as a win anyway.
Kenta Maeda gave the Dodgers the start they needed tonight, going 5.2 innings on 96 pitches while only surrendering two runs. He struck out five, hit two batters, and gave up four hits (including both runs on a two-run homer), but walked none which helped him turn in a quality outing.
Of course, he probably could’ve gone the full six innings if Dave Roberts just had the confidence in to get an out with a runner on first and two down.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/761391586945052672
But whatever, I guess, so Pedro Baez was brought in to induce a fly ball to end the inning. Baez also got a scoreless seventh inning, though he did allow a hit and get help from JT on this sterling play.
The offense didn’t bust out or anything, but they did look significantly better than the previous two nights, as they totalled four runs on 11 hits (two doubles, a triple, and a homer), three walks, and a hit batter.
The Dodgers got on the board in the fourth thanks to a single to left by Howie Kendrick, which drove in Josh Reddick from third, who reached himself on a walk. In the fifth, a crooked number was put up on the board, and Corey Seager got things started with a long gone homer to right center.
After a Justin Turner double and an Adrian Gonzalez infield single, Yasmani Grandal cleared the bases with a triple into the gap in right center.
Quietly, Grandal has a .226/.339/.464/.803 slash and a 118 wRC+, which puts him at fourth on the team behind Seager, Turner, and Joc Pederson (by one point). Among 29 catchers with 200 plate appearances, Grandal is tied for third in the majors with Jonathan Lucroy, and is behind only Wilson Ramos and Buster Posey.
Decent.
Still, the Dodgers were stuck at four runs because the sequencing was rather unfortunate and Maeda happened to be the one to strand runners today. Maeda lined out with two down and runners on second and third in the second inning and also grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the fourth frame.
Thankfully then, the bullpen shut it down. Joe Blanton entered to get the eighth inning and got a clean frame, which set things up for Kenley Jansen to protect a two-run lead. Jansen struck two in his perfect frame to notch his 32nd save on the season.
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With the Dodgers salvaging a win from the series, they up their record to 60-48 overall and 27-28 away from home. The Giants won today in extra innings, so their lead in the NL West race is still 2 games. In the NL Wild Card chase, the Marlins didn’t play and the Cardinals lost, meaning the Dodgers are now ahead of both teams by 3 games for home-field advantage and to make the playoffs.
The Dodgers fly home to face the Red Sox tomorrow night at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST, with the pitching matchup being Scott Kazmir (4.41 ERA/4.23 FIP/4.25 DRA) and Steven Wright (3.20/3.47/4.25).
