Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers bounced back from yesterday’s frustrating loss to beat the Padres tonight, 5-1. Rich Hill continued to pitch amazing when he isn’t having blister issues, and a stretch of four batters is what blew the game open in favor of the Dodgers.
But besides the win, there was one other gigantic reason to be excited.
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Rich Hill’s blister situation has been extremely frustrating, but whenever he’s actually pitched for the Dodgers, we’ve been reminded exactly why they took the risk. Hill was dominant again, providing six shutout innings over 89 pitches, striking out eight and allowing just a hit and two walks.
Better yet, the walks were sorta iffy as Hill was being squeezed all night, and he actually carried a no-hitter into the sixth. Despite his performance, he was … uh … not happy with giving up a single hit.
We can always count on Vin Scully for an accurate translation at least.
Opposing starter Luis Perdomo faced one over the minimum through three innings, and it certainly looked like another frustrating night. But the Dodgers offense can be explosive, and they reminded everybody of that in the fourth. Corey Seager, Justin Turner, and Adrian Gonzalez all singled, which scored a run and put two on. Yasmani Grandal then promptly hit an absolute missile over the center-field wall for a three-run homer, and in four batters the Dodgers were up 4-0.
The Dodgers tacked on another run in the sixth behind … Josh Reddick? Yes, a Reddick homer in real life.
CHRISTMAS IN SEPTEMBER
All jokes aside, while Reddick is likely never going to dig out of the hole he put himself into in August, he is currently riding a four-game hitting streak and put up a 3-for-4 night. Just have to hope this is him getting back to being an above-average hitter, because no matter what playing time he sees, him being a productive bat only makes the Dodgers that much deeper.
Anyway, Joe Blanton relieved Hill in the seventh inning, and had a bit of a rough go of it. Blanton threw 23 pitches and allowed a single and a walk, but struck out one and got through a scoreless inning. Casey Fien took over in the eighth and continued to look unfortunately mediocre, striking out one but giving up two hits en route to allowing a run and blowing the shutout.
Way to ruin EVERYTHING, Casey.
Kenley Jansen was then brought into a four-run game because I guess he needed work or something, and he promptly struck out the side to secure the win.
He gud.
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But fuck this game. Who cares? The most important news of the night is that Clayton Kershaw might be back.
Kershaw's day likely over. 3 innings, 1 single, 5 strikeouts, 34 pitches. No ball left the infield.
— Jack Baer (@JFordBaer) September 4, 2016
"Will you make another rehab start?"
"No, I think I'm pitching in four days". pic.twitter.com/LUkvNWDgdc— Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (@RCQuakes) September 4, 2016
BABY COME BACK
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With the win, the Dodgers improve to 75-60 overall and a stellar 43-27 at home. Unfortunately, the Giants also won today, which means the lead in the NL West for the Dodgers still stands at 2 games.
The series finale against the Padres is tomorrow afternoon at 10:10 AM HST/1:10 PM PST/4:10 PM EST, and the pitching matchup will be Jose De Leon making his debut against Christian Friedrich (4.84 ERA/4.61 FIP/5.89 DRA).
